Part One: Product Descriptions and Photos

The ChopLocal team has looked at a LOT of online farm stores over the past couple of years, and learned some important lessons from operating choplocal.com.

And one reoccurring trend we see: there's not enough information for customers to confidently make decisions.

**This article is part one of a four-part blog series to help summarize what your customer needs. **

Product Descriptions & Photos

Writing complete product descriptions can be tedious, but it's incredibly important in order to increase your ecommerce conversion rate, especially among new customers.

At a bare minimum, you need to answer these questions:

• How big is the package? (1 per pack? 2 per pack?)
• How much does this cut weigh? (Is that the total package weight? Or the weight of each item?)

To really make an impact, go beyond the basics and include:

• Alternative names for the cut: New York Strip might also be called NY Strip, Strip Steak, etc. This helps clear up any confusion over regional cut names, and also helps with search engine optimization.
• Cooking and recipe ideas: How does your family enjoy this cut? Do you have a favorite recipe? Include it here!
• Farm practices and product claims: This is especially important as a reminder to new customers about what makes you special.

It's okay to use stock photographs, if you do it correctly!

Rule #1: Do not ever, under any circumstances, copy and paste a photo from somewhere online, though, and that especially applies to grabbing images from food bloggers.

Bloggers work hard to develop new recipes and photograph them, and those photographs are copyrighted. Many bloggers keep an eye out for "stolen" photos, and have been known to get lawyers involved. It's best to avoid the risk.

So where can you get stock photographs?

There are three websites we recommend:

• Pixabay.com
• Pexels.com
• beefitswhatsfordinner.com And if you are a Canva user, Canva Pro has an incredible selection of stock photos you can use.

Rule #2: Use photos that represent your product well. For example, don't use highly marbled Wagyu photos if your product is a leaner grass-fed beef. The stock photo should look similar to the product you are selling or you'll end up with some very unhappy customers.

Other tips:

• Which is better? Pictures of cooked meat or raw meat? We recommend including both! We like to include photos of the raw meat if it's a muscle cut (steak, chop, etc.) and especially if it's a photo of your meat (not a stock photo.)
• If you take photos of your own meat, use the same background for each photo for a very professional-looking result.
• Consider including a farm photo on the product page, as well. Again, this is a reminder for new customers that they are buying directly from a farm!

  Next: Part Two - Shipping Information