Fresh food joins Overstock offering

The farmers market has gone digital at Overstock.com where the discount online retailer has launched home delivery of locally sourced product.

Overstock.com launched the new Farmers Market section of its site to offer home delivery of seasonal, healthy food, grown and produced in close proximity to shoppers, according to the company.

"We're integrating small farms, community-supported agriculture and co-ops into our technology so as to allow consumers in their area to buy and arrange delivery through Overstock," said Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. "We want to streamline the farm-to-table process to provide everyone access to healthy food, delivered to their doorstep."

Overstock, once known primarily as a retailer of closeout goods, is currently able to serve about 20% of the U.S. population with fresh food grown near customers’ zip codes and by the end of the year the company expects to offer delivery to 70% of the U.S. population.

In an increasingly commonplace approach, each product featured in the Farmers Market is accompanied by a biography of the farmer or specialty food purveyor who grew it, along with a look into their production processes, in order to give customers a better idea of the food they are purchasing. Food retailers as varied as Whole Foods and Walmart employ a similar strategy.

Overstock said its Farmers Market initiative requires no up-front costs for suppliers to join and relies on a revenue-sharing model that allows them to get their products on Overstock with minimal changes to existing procedures.