Farmzz Blog
How to Manage Your Products on Farmzz: Keep Your Catalog Fresh and Your Subscribers Engaged
Marc-Antoine grows 30 varieties of vegetables on his 8-acre farm near Sherbrooke. When he joined Farmzz in May, he added all 30 products in one sitting—photos, descriptions, categories. Great start. But by August, his catalog still showed "early-season asparagus" as available, his strawberry photo was from June, and he'd added five new crops without creating entries for any of them. His notifications featured products that hadn't been at his stand in weeks. Subscribers noticed. His open rate dropped from 42% to 19%.
He spent one Sunday evening—about 40 minutes—toggling off finished products, updating descriptions to reflect what was actually in season, and adding photos of this week's harvest. His next notification went out Monday morning. Open rate: 38%. Three subscribers who'd gone quiet for a month showed up at his stand that week.
The lesson isn't complicated: a product catalog that reflects reality drives engagement. One that's stale drives silence. Managing your catalog isn't busywork. It's the difference between subscribers who trust your notifications and subscribers who start ignoring them.
What you'll learn
- How to keep your catalog accurate across a full growing season
- When and how to toggle products between available and unavailable
- How to update descriptions and photos without starting over
- How to organize by category so customers find what they want
- How catalog freshness directly impacts notification engagement
- A weekly 5-minute routine that keeps everything current
Why catalog management is a revenue lever
Your Farmzz product catalog feeds three things: your public profile, your notification emails, and your subscribers' trust. When any of those three breaks down, the result is the same—fewer people at your stand.
Consider what happens when a subscriber opens your notification email. They see the products you've selected, complete with photos and descriptions. If those products are genuinely available and the photos look like what they'll find when they arrive, trust builds. They start treating your notifications like a reliable weekly shopping guide. If the products are outdated or the photos don't match reality, doubt creeps in. After two or three misleading notifications, they stop opening altogether.
Farms that update their catalog at least once a week see 25–40% higher notification engagement than farms that let their catalogs go stale. At a subscriber list of 300, that's the difference between 75 and 120 people reading your notification—and the downstream visits, sales, and repeat business that follow.
Toggling availability: the most important habit
The availability toggle is the single most important catalog management tool. Every product can be set to "available" (visible on your profile and selectable for notifications) or "unavailable" (hidden from public view, preserved in your dashboard).
When to toggle off:
- The crop is finished for the season (last of the strawberries sold last week)
- You've temporarily sold out and won't restock for several days
- Weather or pests have interrupted a crop and you're not sure when it'll return
When to toggle on:
- First harvest of a crop is ready (toggle on + send notification = maximum impact)
- A crop you toggled off has recovered and is available again
- You've restocked after a sold-out period
The beauty of toggling (instead of deleting and recreating) is that all your product details are preserved. The photo you uploaded in June is still there in September. The description you wrote when you were feeling inspired at 6 AM is still there in November. Toggle off, toggle on—that's it.
Some farmers toggle availability daily during peak season. Others do it once a week. The right frequency depends on how fast your inventory moves. If you sell out of a product by Wednesday and you have a notification going out Thursday, toggle it off before the notification so subscribers aren't disappointed.
Updating descriptions to match the season
A product description that was perfect in June may be misleading in August. Descriptions should reflect the current reality of your product. This doesn't mean rewriting from scratch every week—it means making small adjustments as the season progresses.
| Season phase | Description angle | Example (strawberries) |
|---|---|---|
| First harvest | Excitement, scarcity | "First strawberries of the season! Limited quantity—come early." |
| Peak season | Abundance, bulk buying | "Peak sweetness, abundant supply. Perfect for jam, freezing, or eating by the handful." |
| Late season | Urgency, last chance | "Last week for strawberries this year. Get them before they're gone." |
Each version of the description creates different motivation. Early-season scarcity drives first-mover urgency. Peak-season abundance encourages bulk purchases (bigger average sale). Late-season finality triggers "don't miss out" behavior. These aren't marketing tricks—they're accurate descriptions of your real situation, framed in a way that helps customers make informed decisions.
Updating a description on Farmzz takes about 30 seconds. Click the product, edit the text, save. There's no approval process or delay—the change is live immediately on your profile and available for your next notification.
Refreshing photos: when and why
Photos age faster than you think. A photo of June strawberries still works in July, but by August it feels stale to repeat visitors. More importantly, this week's harvest may look different from last month's—different color, different size, different presentation.
The ideal rhythm is to refresh key product photos every 2–4 weeks during high season. You don't need to reshoot everything—focus on your top 3–5 products that appear in most notifications. A quick phone photo of today's actual harvest replaces the old one in about 15 seconds.
Why does this matter? Subscribers who open your notification emails every week start recognizing photos. When they see the same strawberry basket photo for the eighth time, the notification starts to feel like spam—even if the message is new. A fresh photo signals "this is happening right now" and reengages subscribers who might otherwise scroll past.
One farm near Québec City told us they take one "catalog photo" each morning during high season while doing their harvest walk. It adds about 90 seconds to their routine and keeps their entire catalog feeling alive.
Organizing by category for easy browsing
As your catalog grows past 10–15 products, categories become essential. Without them, your public profile is a long, unsorted list. With them, visitors can scan by type: Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, Eggs, Preserves, Flowers.
Category tips:
- Use the built-in categories. Farmzz provides standard categories that most farms need. Stick with these rather than creating unusual custom groupings—visitors expect "Fruits" and "Vegetables," not "Things We Grew This Week."
- Assign every product. Uncategorized products float in limbo. Spend the extra second assigning a category when you create each product.
- Reorder within categories. Put seasonal highlights at the top of each category. If your cherry tomatoes are peaking this week, drag them above the roma tomatoes in the Vegetables category.
Categories also make notification creation faster. When you're building a notification and selecting which products to feature, filtering by category lets you quickly find the right items instead of scrolling through your entire catalog. With 30+ products, this saves real time.
Using products in notifications for maximum impact
Every notification you send through Farmzz can include selected products from your catalog. When subscribers receive the notification email, they see each featured product with its photo, name, and description—like a mini market display in their inbox.
Best practices for featuring products in notifications:
- Feature 3–6 products per notification. Fewer than 3 feels sparse. More than 6 overwhelms. The sweet spot is showing enough variety to get someone excited without making the email feel like a spreadsheet.
- Lead with your star product. Put the item you're most proud of—or the one with the most limited supply—first. It's the first thing subscribers see.
- Rotate products week to week. If you feature the same five products every notification, fatigue sets in. Rotate in seasonal items, new additions, or products that haven't been featured recently.
- Match products to your message. If your notification text says "U-pick blueberries are open!" make sure blueberries are the first featured product with a current photo.
The 5-minute weekly catalog routine
The best-performing farms on Farmzz don't spend hours on catalog management. They have a simple routine that takes 5 minutes, once a week. Here's a version you can steal:
Every Friday evening (or whatever day works for you):
- Scan the availability column. Toggle off anything that sold out or finished this week. Toggle on anything coming back.
- Update 1–2 descriptions. Pick one or two products where the description no longer matches reality. Tweak a sentence or two.
- Swap 1 photo. Replace one stale photo with a fresh one from this week's harvest.
- Check product order. Move this week's highlights to the top.
- Add any new products. If you started offering something new this week, add a quick entry.
That's it. Five minutes, once a week. The result is a profile that looks alive, notifications that feel current, and subscribers who trust what you send them.
Common catalog management mistakes to avoid
Leaving sold-out products as "available." A subscriber opens your notification, sees blueberries listed, drives 30 minutes, and finds out blueberries sold out two days ago. That's a broken promise. Toggle products off the moment they're done for the week. It takes 3 seconds and saves you a customer complaint.
Never updating descriptions. A product description from June that says "first of the season" still showing in September feels stale. Even a small tweak like changing "first of the season" to "peak harvest" keeps your catalog honest and current.
Deleting seasonal products instead of toggling. Deleting removes everything—photo, description, category. You'll have to redo it from scratch next year. Toggling to unavailable preserves every detail. Always toggle, never delete, unless you've permanently stopped growing something.
Ignoring product order. The default order may not highlight your strongest items. Spend 30 seconds dragging your top sellers and seasonal peaks to the top. It's the difference between a visitor seeing your best products first or scrolling past less exciting entries.
Using the same 3 products in every notification. Even your most popular items suffer from notification fatigue when featured every week. Rotate products. Feature different combinations. Surprise subscribers with a product they haven't seen featured in a while. Variety keeps your notifications feeling fresh.
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Frequently asked questions
Can I edit a product while it's featured in an active notification?
Yes. Changes you make to a product (description, photo, availability) take effect immediately on your profile. However, notifications that have already been sent won't update retroactively—the email your subscribers received will show the version of the product at the time you sent it. This is another reason to keep your catalog current before you send each notification.
How do I handle products I grow every year but only for a few weeks?
Use the availability toggle. Create the product once with a good photo and description. When the season ends, toggle it to unavailable. Next year when it's back, toggle it to available. All your details are preserved. No need to re-enter anything. Some farms on Farmzz have had the same asparagus entry for three seasons—they just update the photo each spring.
Should I delete products I no longer grow?
Only if you've permanently stopped growing them. If there's any chance you'll bring it back, toggle it to unavailable instead. Deleting removes all the details you entered—photo, description, category—and you'd need to redo it from scratch. The unavailable toggle costs you nothing and saves future effort.
How many products should I feature in each notification?
Between 3 and 6 is the sweet spot. Fewer than 3 makes the notification feel thin—subscribers wonder why you bothered sending it. More than 6 creates decision fatigue and makes the email too long on mobile. Aim for your 4–5 strongest, most seasonal, most available items each time you send.
My products look different in August than they did in June. Do I need to update everything?
Not everything—focus on the products that changed most. If your tomatoes went from green and small to red and abundant, a new photo is worthwhile. If your honey looks the same year-round, skip it. The goal is accuracy, not perfection. Spend your time on the products that appear in notifications most often.
Can subscribers see unavailable products?
No. Unavailable products are completely hidden from your public profile. They only exist in your private dashboard catalog. Subscribers will never see a product you've toggled off, which is exactly the point—your profile always reflects what's actually available right now.