# Online honey sales



## Adamandeverest

Hi there, does anyone sell much honey online? Really like the farmers market and local approach but curious if people sell online as well. As more people try backyard honey I'd think more people would support it and do their part to protect the bees. 

Thanks for your thoughts, really dig the forum. I'm also on twitter @adam_buchanan, seems like a few folks are on there, dig everyone's updates and photos.


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## angel

I'm subscribing to this thread as well, and I hope you don't mind me partially hijacking the thread Adam, but if I could add a few things? 

Online experiences (returns, anyone ran into laws to sell food products online, breakage for glass containers, ebay/craigslist/etsy sales etc).


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## Mary Q

In today’s business world, not having a website or some type of internet presence (at least a Facebook page) is like not having a telephone.

Search engines give results based upon the IP address of the person doing the search and the address of the business that offers the goods (honey) or services the person is looking for. So when somebody in your area types “honey”, “raw honey”, “local honey” (or any of the products you sell) into the search bar there is a good chance your website or what ever type of internet presence (if you have one, even if it is just a listing on the Chamber of Commerce) will come up.

A website works for you 24/7.


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## clyderoad

Mary Q said:


> In today’s business world, not having a website or some type of internet presence (at least a Facebook page) is like not having a telephone.
> 
> Search engines give results based upon the IP address of the person doing the search and the address of the business that offers the goods (honey) or services the person is looking for. So when somebody in your area types “honey”, “raw honey”, “local honey” (or any of the products you sell) into the search bar there is a good chance your website or what ever type of internet presence (if you have one, even if it is just a listing on the Chamber of Commerce) will come up.
> 
> A website works for you 24/7.


You didn't mention the endless questions, naive inquiries, requests for you name it, fishing emails, scam emails, millions of SEO company emails, it goes on and on. Is it worth it? I'm not sure for smaller operators.
It goes on 24/7 also.


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## blackowl

I do online selling but of different products. I think I mastered it in my own little way. I might be wrong though but business is really good these days. One thing that made it this good is yeah, the internet. Initially you can post product info in your social media accounts and first customers will be family and friends. It is a good way to start though. Of course I am only talking about small scale businesses. It will be something different and bigger once your clientele gets bigger. Good luck.


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## David LaFerney

I sell most of my honey to customers who found me online - many of which become repeat customers. I have an extremely simple wordpress website devoted to honey - cookevillehoney.com - and I prime it every once in a while on LSN.

Spam and other nuisance contacts are not a problem.


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## Adamandeverest

David LaFerney said:


> I sell most of my honey to customers who found me online - many of which become repeat customers. I have an extremely simple wordpress website devoted to honey - cookevillehoney.com - and I prime it every once in a while on LSN.
> 
> Spam and other nuisance contacts are not a problem.


That's awesome. I'm building up mylocalnectar.com and so far so good. I'll keep the conversation going when it comes to returns or how it's received.


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## leejones15

Does anyone know what the rules are for selling honey online? As far the Ag Dept? In Oregon, I can sell direct to the consumer at Farmers market without a license, but what about internet sales? Do those of you selling online have a license?


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## jorre

Definitely check your local laws, I'm not in the US so I can't compare. I'm a beginning beekeeper but I've been in the web development business for over 10 years. Personally I'm setting up a small web shop in combination with a blog and facebook page where I'm informing people about bees and my tiny bee colony. I don't have honey yet, but what I'll hopefully have next year is already reserved in advance. It definitely doesn't hurt have a decent online presence, but then again, I'd suggest only doing it if you have fun working online. Don't do it if it's only a drag to you. Let me know if you need any advice for setting up a blog or store or anything else, I'd be happy to give you my advice which will be worth more than my beekeeping advice at this point in time


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## David LaFerney

Local honey almost sells itself - even without paying experts to promote it for you. A simple website is just a good way for people to easily find you. Do include the name of your town or city and descriptive words that people might search for in your domain name, headings and content. Modern software such as Wordpress, squarespace, etc are pretty user and search engine friendly right out of the box. 

It's a niche product and most of us hobby beekeepers need a hundred or so customers at most - not millions.


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## TPalmer

leejones15 said:


> Does anyone know what the rules are for selling honey online? As far the Ag Dept? In Oregon, I can sell direct to the consumer at Farmers market without a license, but what about internet sales? Do those of you selling online have a license?


Not sure about Oregon but in Florida we have the Cottage law that lets us sell in person only. I am not allowed to sell over the internet and then ship it to them. Now that doesn't mean that you can't have a web page to let your customers know when you have honey in stock.


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## blackowl

Thank you for all your valuable thoughts. I will really look into it since of course, it will involve some cost on my part.


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## Loranger Honey

I sold on line for a while. Beware. The honey with crystallize in the hold of some aircraft.....


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## Mark Warner

I see that is a wordpress site so I would def. recommend installing the Yoast SEO plugin. Adjust your title tags a bit to include some better keywords to help you get found in search. Start to learn a bit more about SEO while you go.


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## aunt betty

clyderoad said:


> You didn't mention the endless questions, naive inquiries, requests for you name it, fishing emails, scam emails, millions of SEO company emails, it goes on and on. Is it worth it? I'm not sure for smaller operators.
> It goes on 24/7 also.


Yes. I get plenty of that in person by putting up two little signs in my bee yard. "Will it crystalize?" "Is it Raw?" "Filtered?" "Do you feed sugar?" "Is sugar in the honey?" and on and on over a 12-ounce honey bear. 
Imagine world-wide. 
Can't think of a better way to get the USDA trying to know everything about your "operation".


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## aunt betty

Ohhh. Colorado. Got that "special kind of honey"? 

:applause:


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## Planner

I spent a lot of time an money having a company do web site and it was not worth the effort for one main reason. People want local honey. Why would someone in California want honey from New York? There are other reasons why a site is good, but I can do better selling locally where there is more demand.


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## clyderoad

Planner said:


> Why would someone in California want honey from New York? There are other reasons why a site is good, but I can do better selling locally where there is more demand.



-for gifts.
-those who have relocated want a taste of home.


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## johnsof

I would strongly stress to check the local laws. Here in Wisconsin we are also considered under Cottage Law which means I must produce and bottle and sell the honey myself - I have to hand it to you, I cannot ship it. If I want to do as you suggest then I have to have a license.

A Farmer's Market is kinda fun anyway, I enjoy it. My wife has started a Facebook page for my little operation, we'll see if that helps bring customers directly to me rather than only through the Market. I also make a big, big deal about being very local and customers, especially those with allergies, really want that. It's nice when they ask "how local?" and I can point off towards my place and say "about two miles that-a-way".


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## Mrhotdice

leejones15 said:


> Does anyone know what the rules are for selling honey online? As far the Ag Dept? In Oregon, I can sell direct to the consumer at Farmers market without a license, but what about internet sales? Do those of you selling online have a license?


Sometimes in life, it’s better to ask forgiveness than for permission.:applause:


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## grozzie2

Mrhotdice said:


> Sometimes in life, it’s better to ask forgiveness than for permission.:applause:


Unless ofc you are intentionally breaking laws that have been in force for years and years. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.

In our area the rules around selling our product are fairly clear. We can sell direct, and do, we have a farm stand and most of our product is sold thru the farm stand. We could go to one of the local farm markets if we wanted to, selling via the farm market is also permitted. There is another market in the area, they require all vendors to have an inspection certificate for the facility in which the product is produced / packaged.

If we want to sell it in local stores, a health certificate for the packing facility is required, which can be obtained thru the local health authority. As honey is considered a 'low risk' product, the standards required are not terribly difficult to meet, and in reality, your packing facility should meet those standards anyways. but 'in the home kitchen' does NOT meet standards, if that's your way of doing it, then selling from your own property or a farmers market in person is the only way allowed around here.

We can ship anywhere within the province with just a health certificate from the health authority. But, if we want to ship honey beyond the province, then we need to upgrade our facility to be inspected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which has much higher standards than required for local store sales. If we upgrade our facility to CFIA standards, then we can ship honey anywhere.

In our own case, we can sell all we produce and then some at the farm stand, so, have little interest in trying to sell elsewhere. I have zero interest in spending every saturday at the farmers market, and see no need to upgrade our facility to the standards required by CFIA. I may change my tune if we get up to the point where we struggle to sell our honey thru the farm stand, but that's a long ways off, we'll need to be producing 5000 pounds or more for that to happen. We have a little under a thousand pounds in inventory right now, and will have to ration how much we put out at the stand over the next few months so we dont run out before first extraction next year.


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## gww

Our law in Mo was just like grozzie states till just recently. It was easier for other places to ship honey in and sell it then it was for missourieans to sell local honey. It is a low risk product. We can now sell though second parties and on the internet up to fifty thousand bucks. I will say that people have had to remove stuff from store shelves before the change but have never heard of anyone getting cited for it. I think the change is a great improvement that was done with some lobbying and might be something that others might consider pushing for in thier own states. Some body had to ask for it before there was a change. I do know that even when it was that people had to hand the bottle personally to the buyer that people did send it with others to be sold. I imagine it depends on scale. If you tried to skirt a law to move tons of stuff, you end up making enough money that it is worth it for the gov. to pursue. If you have 15 gal and you convince your friends to help in selling and delivering, it probly is not worth the effort to stop. Getting the law to more respect what works is the best route. Most places are more willing to look at it due to the public support of bees. That may change some day and a window may have been missed if it does. I have looked at a lot of the laws in a couple of states and most have mirrorred each other. 
Cheers
gww


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## djoca

Not sure why beekeepers don't have a website. It is pretty cheap to setup one, and you don't need to sell online, but it is more than welcome if some new customer find you online and order honey or other products from you. With domain name and hosting, you are under 100$ per year, you can go even cheaper I guess. I guess if you have a couple of hives, it is not a problem to sell what you have. We have 100+, and we used to go to the markets, but it is time consuming, spending whole day and standing around. Now, the most of our sales comes from website, where customers find us for the first time and than order every month or so. (Facebook, Instagram also works good, but you can add website there as well).


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