Sell your produce or products locally
to people who want to buy locally!
STEP 1. Join the Co-op (Join).
You will need to be a resident of the Northern Rivers.
Low joining fee - $10 and $20 annual subscription.
STEP 2. List your goods for sale on the online shop (Online Shop).
You name your price (no middleman).
The Co-op takes only 15% to cover distribution costs.
You can sell as much or as little as you like, whenever you like.
You need to grow or manufacture the goods in the Northern Rivers, no reselling.
You will have your own webpage with information you supply for shoppers.
Once you have listed you will be eligible for "Member of the Week" free advertising on the EcoMart home page.
STEP 3. Shoppers who are members of the Co-op order on line.
Shopper members want to buy local and are keen to support local producers.
Expand your markets - the Co-op will eventually cover all of the Northern Rivers.
You can check what has been sold on line.
You can also shop for your groceries, production supplies and even gifts.
STEP 4. On delivery day (every second Friday).
You bring your sold goods to the Sorting Centre.
Your goods are sold before you deliver them.
You are paid by cheque or direct debit on delivery.
Volunteers sort the goods and arrange them for pick up or delivery.
You need to attach labels to your goods to assist with the sorting process.
These are available on the producer's web page.
STEP 5. It is your Co-op - have a say in how it is run.
Discuss issues with management on delivery day.
Online Forum (Forums).
Important policy changes are emailed to members for comment.
Join the board or a committee.
The Co-op values your input.
Overview
Only members of the Co-op may buy or sell through our Co-op marketplace. Only residents of the Northern Rivers region are eligible for membership.
Acting as the agent of producer members, EcoMart Northern Rivers Co-op Ltd posts on the internet, provides a printed list, and publicises the products its producer members have for sale within its marketplace of members. We receive orders, provide a way for products to be delivered between members of the Co-op, collect payment from the customers and forward the payments to the producers.
Acting as the agent for customer members, we provide them with an online catalog of available local products that includes information about how and where the product was grown or processed (supplied by the producer). We receive their orders and notify the appropriate producers, arrange for the goods to be delivered, receive and process their payments. For both producer and customer members, we provide a basic screening of products and producers based on our published parameters. We also provide education and training regarding the use and the advantages of local foods, more sustainable farming methods, and the core values of the Co-op.
The essential business of the Co-op is to provide an online marketplace where willing Northern Rivers buyers and sellers who are members of the Co-op can meet. At no time does the Co-op ever have title to any of the products sold by producers. These products are owned either by the producer, or by the customer who purchases “title” to the product from the producer. All complaints should first be brought to the attention of the producer, unless it is a situation where the Co-op itself is at fault (such as broken eggs due to poor packing or products delivered incorrectly). If a successful resolution cannot be found by the affected producer and the customer members, the Co-op’s arbitration procedures can be invoked.
All producer members are responsible for reading and complying with the operating procedures of the Co-op. This involves answering a questionaire about your production methods with the answers being available to consumers. Goods can be sold packaged in small quantities for retail consumer members or in larger quantities for wholesale members. At the closing of the online orders, a list of goods sold by each producer will be available on their web page along with labels to be printed out. Producers need to attach the relevant lable to each item and sort the goods in the order of customer delivery codes. Goods need to be delivered to a specified drop off point by a specified time on delivery day. Producer members are welcome to make suggestions to make these procedures more efficient and understandable.
The most efficient way for us to communicate is by the internet. When you join the Co-op, you will be assigned a user name and password so you can access the members’ only pages of our web sites. You will also be assigned a member number. All members will need to keep track of their member number, user name and password.
To log onto our system go to www.nrr.ecomartaustralia.org/shop. You should BOOKMARK this address so you can easily find it when you need it. Sign in with your USER NAME and PASSWORD. If you don’t have that info handy, send an email to members@ecomartaustralia.org And ask for your info again.
The Co-op will advance payment to the Producers for their products within two days after delivery day by direct debit into the producers bank account, unless there are missing item tickets or an unresolved discrepancy in the amount you should be paid. The direct debit process may take a further three working days. Producers will only be paid for products ordered by customers.
Each producer will have a producer's web page on which they may put any information they want including photos, videos, links to their own website, and information about farm gate sales.
EcoMart Northern Rivers Co-op Ltd reserves the right to refuse to accept products that are not what customers ordered, or which are spoiled or contaminated or otherwise not acceptable.
These procedures are established to benefit the common good of the Co-op’s members. The more members we have, the more critical it is that we achieve near 100% compliance with these procedures. At present and for the foreseeable future the Co-op administration and management personnel are all volunteers. By following these procedures, we minimise the demands on any individual volunteers’ time. This is necessary for the long-term sustainability of your Co-op.
Producer-rights in the Co-op are based on your membership. You cannot sell your membership to someone else. You can sell it back to the Co-op if you want to leave, but you can’t sell it to a third party.
You can sell your business, but because you can’t sell our membership share, you can’t sell you producer-rights in EcoMart Northern Rivers Co-op Ltd to a third party. The new owner of your business can join the co-op, apply to become a new producer, and go through the orientation and approval process and then – and only then – can they sell through the Co-op. They will conduct their Co-op business at the new producer page that will be activated when they are approved by the board. They can have the same products that you did, but they have to re-enter them so that they have new product codes. In the meantime, if you notify us that you have sold your business to someone else as of a certain date, on that date we will un-list your producer page and products from our website. The new producer cannot continue to operate your existing web page and products while they go through the approval process.