How this Farm Grew its Average-Order-Size from $20 to $88
It’s easy to stick with a familiar routine. Getting a booth at your local farmer’s markets is a common avenue for many Farmers to initially attract potential new buyers and grow their brand awareness. Some days at the market will be fruitful, while others can be long and result in a small number of sales (failing to even cover the costs of attendance).
While Farmer’s markets have a high degree of affinity and awareness, attendance at markets is not growing. In fact, only 1% of Americans regularly attend markets, meaning your Farm is missing out on the other 99% of potential consumers. In a convenience-first world, it’s time for Farmers to adapt their go-to-market strategies in order to build recurring cash flow and a more resilient business model.
So, what can Farmers do now?
If your Farm currently attends multiple markets each week, that’s okay! But you should consider additional “routes to market” to increase your access to other prospective buyers. By pivoting your Farm to selling direct online, you can increase the number of touchpoints with potential buyers. What does that mean? With eCommerce, Farms can engage buyers on all online channels - web, mobile, social, and email. Your Farm can access more customers and generate additional sales from the 99% of Americans who do not regularly attend markets.
Using the Farmer’s Market as a Marketing Campaign
Consistently attending different markets and seeing spotty sales, Tom of Bennett Farms (Michigan) decided to pivot his business online. Since then, revenue has doubled year-over-year, and his average order value has grown from $20 at the farmer’s market to $88 online. How did he do this? He used the farmer’s market as a marketing campaign to propel his business to the next level.
When Tom and his team attend a market, their goal is to turn attendees into online customers. His team gathers emails from all prospective buyers by signing them up for his Farm newsletter. As a way to incentivize his employees to collect more email addresses, Tom pays $1 for every verified email, knowing that a single email will pay dividends (or at least $88 on average!).
Using a physical email collection form, Mailchimp QR code, and Farm-branded flyers, Tom has seen his customer list increase by more than 150% in the last 12 months. Additionally, he’s turned his spotty one-time purchases into recurring orders, where many customers opt-in to monthly subscriptions. A recurring $88 monthly subscription translates to more than $1,000 per year (much better than a one-time $20 purchase at the market).
A Store that Never Closes
In addition to growing his customer list, Tom’s online store never closes. Attendance at the market can be unpredictable because of weather, out-of-town customers, or an overcrowded booth where impatient buyers won’t wait for you to help them.
An online store that’s open 24/7 allows buyers to shop on their own time and add items to their cart when they’re ready. In fact, the average order value for Farms often increases when products are purchased online. Why? Because Buyers can access your entire inventory in a single view, with an easy point-and-click and simple check-out experience anytime! Additionally, Farmer market attendees tend to “spread” their purchases among multiple vendors versus making a single larger purchase from your Farm online.
Having a self-serve store is great. In the middle of the night, people are still buying stuff! It’s awesome that my Farm store never closes. We’ve never found ourselves sitting on products we couldn’t sell.
- Farmer Tom, Bennett Farms
Meeting Expectations with Convenience
For the average buyer, their week-over-week purchases look consistent 90%+ of the time. That’s why Tom offers Bundle Box Subscriptions to give buyers consistent access to his organic pork and chicken.
Paired with convenient fulfillment options like direct delivery or regular pickups at the market, Tom is catering to a variety of buyers’ needs. Customers are welcome to pick up their subscription at his farmer market stall (free of charge) or choose to pay for their orders to be delivered directly to their doorstep. Reducing all barriers to access his products, Tom has converted hundreds of prospective buyers at the market to much more valuable online sales.
Farmer’s don’t have to skip the markets, but they need to add other routes for customers to access their products to ensure more consistent sales. Reaching the 99% of Americans who do not regularly attend markets by expanding your Farm’s digital presence will help you access more customers and fuel your revenue growth. Paired with convenient options like bundle boxes, subscriptions, and direct delivery, Farmers will increase their average order value, enjoy more consistent revenue, and create a loyal network of customers.
Barn2Door provides an all-in-one solution for Farmers to grow and manage their business. If you’re curious to learn why successful Farms run on Barn2Door, watch this 5-minute video.