3 Ways to Drive Farm Purchases from Potential Customers

As buyers have become increasingly busy, it’s easy for potential customers to find more convenient alternatives than purchasing from your Farm. Excuses can range from how to access your products to how familiar they are with your Brand (yes, lack of brand familiarity is a common buyer excuse!). Your goal should be to eliminate any roadblocks that prevent prospective customers from purchasing from your Farm. How? By offering an easy and convenient experience at every stage in the “buying process” – from purchase to fulfillment. Farmers that do this have dramatically expanded their customer base by up to 170% and doubled annual sales in less than 12 months. Here’s how: 

Streamline Ordering

When time is limited, buyers want the option of a point-and-click experience to purchase products anytime, anywhere that fits with their schedule. Farmers who don’t use a streamlined solution like Barn2Door average 7+ touches before an order is complete. That means there are 7 opportunities for a single buyer to change their mind or fail to respond to you in a timely manner. Many Farmers don’t have the time to manage individual customer needs, and many buyers don’t have the time to wait for your response. 

Barn2Door offers an all-in-one solution to simplify how buyers can purchase directly from your Farm will delight customers and save you time. Farmers that have moved away from accepting orders through email, call, and text save hours of time every day, responding with a pre-written response directing buyers to order from the Farm Webstore. Note, 99% of Americans do NOT regularly attend a farmer’s market. That is why Farmers offering the ease and convenience of placing an order online will delight potential customers, increase orders, eliminate roadblocks to access your Farm, and save time. 

Read: How To Use Farmer's Markets to Grow Faster Online

Read: Tactics that 3 Farms Implemented to Grow to $100k in 1 Year

Provide Convenient Fulfillment Options

While 94% of Americans would prefer to buy local versus purchasing a commodity product, your customers will always prioritize easy, convenient access to the products they want – no matter what! In fact, 3 out of 4 Americans admit that multiple fulfillment options influence their purchasing decisions. If your Farm doesn’t offer convenient delivery or pickup options, potential customers will find other product alternatives to purchase. 

To meet the needs of potential and existing customers, provide different purchasing formats to access products that also cater to a variety of buyers' needs: 

• Subscriptions:

Farms that offer Subscriptions enjoy up to 80% revenue certainty month-over-month. Consumers and wholesale buyers purchase 90% of the same products month-over-month, so make it easy to subscribe to your Farm products they love and use regularly. When Farmers offer their most popular products in Subscription formats, they see a significant increase in sales and recurring cash flow. Consider packaging multiple products into Bundle Box Subscriptions to increase revenue and move more inventory items. Up to 90% of customers will opt-in to Farmer-recommended Bundle Box Subscriptions!

• Pickup

Many buyers prefer curbside Pickup when ordering online. But, to create a successful Pickup service, your location(s) need to be as convenient as a trip to the grocery store. To increase buyer conversion at check-out, choose locations in town (church or school parking lot, community centers, or complementary business) where your buyers live or areas they  frequent regularly. Avoid offering  Pickup locations that are inconvenient or miles outside town (well out of the way of their routine activities.

• Direct Delivery 

1 in 3 Americans have ordered groceries online with the expectation that items would arrive on their doorstep. By offering a Direct Delivery service, new and existing customers will be delighted to have orders arrive at their homes or business. Farms that have expanded fulfillment options to offer local delivery have seen a +2x increase in expanding their customer base. Choose 1-2 zip codes where the majority of your buyers reside and pick 1 day a week or month to deliver orders (depending on the fulfillment cadence of your Farm products).

Read: How to Run a Convenient Farm Pickup Service

Read: 3 Farm Success Stories with Subscriptions

Watch: How a Delivery Service Drives Brand Loyalty 

Engage Customers Regularly 

Americans crave the need to be familiar with brands and build relationships with local business owners. For 86% of Americans, authenticity is a key factor when deciding which brands they support. Farmers who take the time to engage their buyers across all channels – web, mobile, social, and email – build strong local followers and create strong brand recognition for their Farm business. At Barn2Door, we've seen those Farms that engage customers regularly across these channels have increased their average order value by up to 30%!

Here are two channels your Farm can focus on to build brand loyalty and engage customers regularly:

• Email 

Establishing a relationship with existing customers is just as important as building brand awareness with prospective customers. Existing customers who trust your brand will want to spread the word about your Farm to their network. By keeping them engaged through email order reminders, newsletters, and product updates, you’ll create consistency in your orders. With prospective or new customers, encourage them to sign up for your newsletter for updates, promos, and Farm information. Doing so will help you create brand awareness and keep your Farm top of mind, ensuring they have all the necessary information to access your products. 

• Social Media

Social media is key to establishing trust for prospective buyers and building relationships with existing customers. Every day one-third (⅓) of Americans search online for local businesses; a social media presence and posting consistently to engage followers is essential to building your Farm brand online. When buyers discover your Farm on social, they’ll gain a glimpse into your Farm life, values, mission, and what makes your products unique. Using the three E’s (entertain, educate, and eCommerce) to maintain a regular posting schedule will make it easy for followers to build a connection with your brand.

Read: A Farmer’s Guide to Grow Revenue with Email

Watch: Building a Winning Social Media Strategy

When Farmers address the “problems” that buyers create their excuses from, offer convenience in the purchasing process, and keep customers engaged, they can create a loyal customer base and drive sales. Identifying ways to meet buyers’ expectations and overcoming barriers to access your Farm will be key to creating a resilient Farm business for the future.

Barn2Door provides an all-in-one solution to grow and manage your Farm business. If you’re curious to learn why successful Farms run on Barn2Door, watch this 5-minute video.