Market Wagon - Vendor Training

FIRST, THE BASICS...

You create your own Product Listings, set your sell-limits (i.e. inventory), and you set your retail price.
The day before order fulfillment, your Pick and Fill Tickets are ready showing what your customers have ordered that week and which totes they will be placed into.
On the morning of fulfillment, you Fulfill your orders to the customer's tote at our facility.
d. On Friday Market Wagon mails your check (allow 1 to 3 mailing days for arrival) or initiates an EFT payment to your account (allow 1 business day for processing).

FULFILLMENT

On your first delivery, report to the Manager-on-Duty for a brief training on the best practices for filling customer totes. Any delegated employee who delivers must also complete this training on their first delivery.

Market Wagon uses a unique "Vendor-Fulfillment" model. Each vendor is responsible for placing their items into the customer's delivery tote.
You will find each customer's order by a number on the Order Tag corresponding to your Pick Ticket.
You must check the items off the Order Tag when you fulfill. Market Wagon does not inspect the contents of each tote. Our quality-assurance processes depend on boxes being checked, and failure to do so can lead to items incorrectly reported as missing.
DO NOT substitute items without prior approval from Market Wagon. Missing items are bad, but undisclosed substitutions are worse. If the item is from a different source, the customer needs to be informed before receiving it.

NOTE: Even if you sell just one item, you are obligated to fulfill.

PRODUCT PHOTOS

Feature the product in the foreground of the photo.
Unless it's a liquid product, the best photos are outside of packaging.
Take care to set your products in a clean, attractive background/environment.
Do not show misleading quantities in the photo (e.g. four loaves of bread shown above).
Photos of any size are acceptable, however they must be in landscape orientation.

THE TITLE

Use the product's title in the title (e.g. "GF Sourdough" doesn't say "bread" or "loaf" in the title)
Use qualifying adjectives after the product name, such as putting "Gluten Free" after the name "Sourdough Loaf."
DO NOT use time-limited facts in the title such as "Blow-Out Special" or "NEW!"
DO NOT use superlatives such as "World's Best" or "Absolutely Delicious" in the title. This information is for the description (below).

THE DESCRIPTION

Describe your product well enough to differentiate it, personalize it, and emphasize it's qualities.
Merely stating the product's name or title in the description is not a description.
DO NOT disparage other Market Wagon vendors or products in your description. Focus on your product's quality, not another product's deficiencies.

SIZE & QUANTITY

Recommended: Quantity and sizes in the title (e.g. "Ribeye Steak, 2 pack - Grass Fed - Approx. 12oz each")
- If not listed in the title, the size and quantity MUST be clearly listed in the product description.
Be clear what your size means. The title, "Ribeye Steak, 2 pack - Approx. 12oz," could mean 12oz each, 24oz total, or 12oz total and only 6oz each.
Clarify industry-terms in your description if possible. (e.g. How many apples come in a "Half Peck?")
NOTE: Random-Weight pricing is not supported. Use size ranges of your choosing and price each size range product according to an average for that range.

MINOR DETAILS... MAJOR IMPACT.

When listing products, you will be asked for a series of questions that are not for public viewing, but are required for internal purposes. Answer accurately to ensure your products are delivered safely.

REQUIRED: Indicate a temperature category for your product. Examples include:
- Potentially Hazardous Food ("PHF") requiring refrigeration
- Non-PHF's that nonetheless prefers cooler temperature
- Shelf-Stable, long shelf-life, temperature-insensitive
REQUIRED: Accurately disclose the county of origin.
- For farm-direct foods (i.e. meat, produce, milk, eggs, honey) you must disclose the county where the food was grown.
- For manufactured foods (i.e. baked goods, entrees, soups) you must disclose the county where the food was prepared. Ingredient source disclosure is not required, but it can make your products more attractive if it's known.
Give your best size estimate using the scale provided in the product form.

LABELS & PACKAGING

Raw, uncut produce does NOT require any labeling.
Your product must meet all regulatory label requirements, which vary by food category and could include net weight, ingredients, your name & address, and allergen statements.
If your product label or packaging has a pre-printed price on it, the price cannot be less than that which the product was sold for on Market Wagon.
If your product bears the brand/name of a processor (e.g. a meat processing plant), it must ALSO include your farm/brand name clearly on the label as well.
Do not wrap your product in unnecessary consumer packaging (e.g. a gift bag with handles). Excess packaging will be removed and discarded to fit products into a tote.
NOTE: Market Wagon does not require nor utilize UPC, Barcodes, or GTIN codes

PROMOTIONAL OFFERS

Periodic discounts or "sales" are encouraged. You can enter a sale at any time in your Vendor Portal and gain immediate visibility in the store's "On-Sale" category.
- Offers must be 10% off discount or greater.
- Offers must be 15% off or greater to be considered for additional marketing support from Market Wagon to our email subscribers and our social media.
- Offers cannot run for longer than 2 weeks consecutively.
- No single product should be on sale for more than 2 out of every 4 weeks. Constant sale price is not an acceptable way to effectively lower the everyday price.
DO NOT insert free samples, or sales literature into customer totes.

MARKETING

Upload a profile photo and write a description of your farm/business.
- Your profile photo should be a logo, or a photo of you, your farm, or your business. Not a single product photo.
- Your profile description is your opportunity to tell your story. Let customers know what makes your farm/business unique.
You will have a direct link to your own vendor page where your photo and profile is displayed, as well as all of your product listings for customers to shop.
- HINT: You can use the link to this page as your "Shop Now" link on Facebook pages, or add an "Online Ordering" link to your website.
You have the ability to post content in a news-feed fashion to Market Wagon shoppers in the Fresh Feed.
- Examples of posts include short quips about farm life, "coming soon" announcements, sale alerts, and recipe ideas.
- You are limited to 1 post per day.
- You may not insert hyperlinks into your posts.

❮ Next ❯

The product's title, description, price, and information such as it's location of origin, size, quantity, and inventory. All of these details are provided by and maintained by the vendor. A weekly email that details precisely what has been sold and which customer's ordered it. The information is conveyed in multiple formats designed for both "picking" product from your inventory, and "putting" or "fullfilling" products into the customer's totes. Delivering product to Market Wagon's facility AND placing items into each customer's tote. The Market Wagon staff member designated in charge of the fulfillment process. A unique model whereby our vendors are responsible to fullfill orders, and in echange they receive a greater percentage of the retail sales compared to conventional wholesale that would be distributor-fulfilled or retailer-fulfilled. A tag which contains the customer's name, a unique "Tag ID" number that corresponds to the Pick Ticket, and a checklist of all items in that order. A pricing model that varies for each unit sold based on the precise weight of that item. Also called "catch weight," this method is most common in meat sales where each cut could vary slightly in weight. A term used by food safety organizations to classify foods that require time-temperature control to keep them safe for human consumption A term that classifies food that can be safely stored at room temperature in a sealed container. Sometimes called "ambient food." The smallest geopolitical boundary that can be defined for any location in the U.S. We do not track to the City, because many of our farms are not within the bounds of a city. But all locations can be narrowed to at least a county level. The online system where vendors login to create new Product Listings, manage inventory, find their Pick Tickets, post Offers, and more. Login can be found at https://admin.marketwagon.com A real-time feed of short messages from vendors about farm updates, product information, sale alerts, "coming soon" announcements, and more. The Fresh Feed is displayed to all shoppers on the Market Wagon website and is a great opportunity for vendors to gain exposure to new customers and stay in touch with regular buyers.

VENDOR ORIENTATION

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