In past newsletters, we’ve touched upon different segments of gourmet food and how they need to be a part of your product mix. We’ve offered suggestions on selecting the right gourmet gifts for your market and how to implement strategies to sell gourmet food items to your customers. Now we are going to wrap it all up and bring it home by reviewing the lessons learned.

Four Thing You Need To Know About Gourmet Foods

Gourmet Gifts – It is  a big category! It includes cookbooks, gift sets, spices, coffee, condiments, jam, jellies, salsa and so much more.  You can think of gourmet food as a catch-all phrase for food items or food-related items that are unique and/or culturally interesting.

These are often food items that you may not be able to find at your local supermarket. Even items used to cook with can fall into the niche market of gourmet food items. Remember gourmet gifts speak to our senses of smell and taste, to our culture and heritage, to our sense of adventure and exploration, and to our way of life.

Your marketing of  these types of items is essential to your sales. You simply cannot just dump the gourmet preserves you have ordered on a table and hope they sell.  You have to showcase your product to effectively sell the product.  Something as simple as giving out a sample can make your cash register sing.

Think about it: Allowing your customers to try a sample of your preserves or jellies on a cracker will encourage them to try a new or unfamiliar product. When a customer tries a product the chance they will purchase the product greatly increases. Sampling is just one way you can actively introduce your gourmet products. Free recipes ideas are another. Remember: customers are willing to try new things. If you give them an idea to use the product, they will realize their need for it.

Seek out vendors who have pre-made gift baskets. Wholesale gourmet gift baskets are a great tool to use.  Buying pre-packaged gift baskets from wholesale vendors can help you learn how to combine products while easing you into the gourmet gift market. When you are ready to expand and take on other gourmet items, you will have the knowledge on how to combine and present your new products.

Pre-made gift basket wholesalers, also offer you a time value product.  A smaller shop may not have the time or money to invest in multiple gourmet food vendor products. Utilizing pre-made gift baskets saves time, as baskets are filled with a sundry of items and shipped to you. Again, this is another way to creatively offer gourmet foods.

Everybody eats, especially in America. We Americans love our food items! We also enjoy giving food items as gifts. Once we find a particular food item we enjoy, we become loyal and can’t wait to share our great find with everyone.  This is essential to your shop, as repeat customers are key to your base sales.  In one of FGmarket’s newsletters, I mention how I drive out of my way to buy a certain gourmet spice mix.  I can guarantee I am not the only one to do this.

Now that you have the strategies, ideas and the nitty gritty of gourmet foods, success is just a taste away. You can check out  more great gourmet food item vendors at FGMarket.  As always this is just a sample of the many wonderful vendors you can find here at FGmarket, keep reading our newsletters for more ideas on sales and marketing.