Lots of chefs using Hotplate, especially bakers, regularly sell their goods at local farmer’s markets and in person vendor events. Local markets are a great way to get your brand in front of your community, hand out samples, meet new customers, and grow your list of superfans. While attending markets on their own can make a difference in your business, using Hotplate alongside your market schedule is a recipe for even greater success!
Offer market pre-orders
The number one way Hotplate chefs utilize our platform in conjunction with their markets is by offering a market pre-order. Chefs create a menu of the items they plan to bring to their booth then publish a pre-order event for that week, listing the market date and time as the pickup location. Let’s get into the advantages:
Guarantee sales
If you’ve done markets often, you’re probably familiar with the guessing game of predicting how many of each item to bring. Especially when it comes to in person events, attendance can vary from week to week based on weather, traffic, seasons, and sometimes seemingly no reason at all! We hear all the time about how disheartening it is to have a bunch of beautiful goods leftover at the end of the day – all that time and money down the drain!
Now, imagine having confidence about the quantities you’re going to sell showing up to a market already knowing that half your stock is sold. Better yet, imagine that the money is already in your account!
By setting up a pre-order, you not only can better forecast how many items to make, but also relieve some stress during the event.
Make customers happy
If you run a popular booth, your regular customers might struggle to get hands on their favorite item if they show up late. By allowing your devoted customers to pre-order, they can be sure that their items are reserved and waiting for them, regardless of when they arrive. That’s a good customer experience!
Keep traffic consistent
It’s no secret that a busy booth attracts even more customers. “What’s happening over there?” they all whisper as they flock towards the crowd. An advantage of having pre-orders and customers scheduled to come pick up goods is that you’re guaranteed traffic to your booth. You can even set up your Hotplate event with staggered pickup times to guarantee that someone is coming by your booth every few minutes.
Display your QR code, grow your SMS list
An in person market is a great way to meet new potential customers face to face. This is the time to give out samples, tell your story, and make people fall in love with you and your food.
This is also the right time to encourage anyone who is excited about your food to stay connected through joining your Hotplate SMS list. We recommend printing out a poster, handout, or business cards that prominently display a QR code that leads to your Hotplate storefront.
Encourage everyone to scan the QR code and add their phone number to your SMS list so that they can be notified about your future sales. This is a great way to keep track of all the people you met at the market, and keep them coming back week after week.
Here’s an example of a Hotplate baker who gives out handouts with each order reminding customers to sign up for their text list:
Use Hotplate for walk up ordering
Whether or not you’re offering a pre-order, you can also use Hotplate to accept walk up orders and take payments. This is super easy to do, and we go into more detail on the steps to set that up in this article.
The bottom line
Whether you’re just entering the market circuit or if you a seasoned pro, adding a Hotplate pre-order and utilizing our other features can help boost the payoff from your in person event!
