How to Start Your First Farm Pickup
When building your Farm’s go-to-market strategy, you’ll want to consider different factors, including the most convenient way for customers to access your products. Whether it’s a Pickup location, Drop-off point, or a Direct Delivery service, it’s essential to understand what your buyers want while also considering what works best for your business.
If a Direct Delivery service is out of reach at this time, then having a convenient Pickup location or Drop-off point will be critical to your success. In fact, 3 out of 5 Americans have ordered groceries for Pickup! Here are three variables to consider when arranging your Farm Pickup(s) to be as convenient as possible for your buyers:
Make Your Farm Business Discoverable on Google Search
When starting your Pickup service, the number one factor is to make sure that customers know that your Farm exists! With Google My Business, customers can search for local Farms in your area, find your business, access your website, and immediately click to shop from your store. With the ability to pick up their order, it’s essential that your Farm business is not only easily accessible online but can also be reached conveniently in person.
Understand your Customers’ Pickup Expectations
Offering a Pickup service means that you are choosing a location “where” your customers frequent regularly. Customers are unlikely to drive out of their way for a single errand. As your customers fund your Farm business, you need to understand who your customers are, where they are, and when they purchase. Knowing the answers to these questions will help you determine where you should offer your Farm Pickup(s).
To understand who your customers are, identify if they are city office workers, families who attend public events, or attend the weekly farmers’ market. Make a note of the customer profiles who order from you the most. Then, identify where customers are ordering from and where they’re located. Do they order from the city, a local town, or condensed into a specific zip code? Knowing this information is key to determining where your customers would be willing to meet you. This information makes it easier to make a more informed decision and delight your customers.
Some Farmers will send surveys through their Farm Newsletters or create a Facebook Poll to simply ask their customers where they should offer a Pickup.
Make your Farm Accessible: Online & In-Person
It’s easy to choose Pickup points that are only convenient for you, or a particular group of your customers, but you want to find a happy medium. You don’t need to make every customer happy with a Pickup location right next to their house (if that’s what you want, offer Direct Delivery!). Pickup spots should be central locations that serve plenty of customers throughout the day.
For example, choose a community center, local school parking lot, places of worship, and/or farmers’ market as your Pickup points. These are places that typically have parking and are situated “on the way” and can be incorporated as a part of their daily tasks. When your Farm products are easily accessible in-person, that makes more customers want to continue ordering from your Farm online.
If you’re still unsure where to offer Pickups, take a map and circle the zip codes of where your customers are ordering from the most. Then, choose one or two locations in those areas that are easy for you to arrive at once a week or twice a month.
When choosing the Pickup locations, it needs to be convenient for your customers and yourself. People won’t drive out of their way to meet you at your Farm (especially if it’s 20+ miles from their home). Ideal Pickup locations should be part of customers’ daily routines and frequent paths of travel.
The location(s) you choose will be critical to running a successful Pickup service. Without convenient access to your Farm products, it’s unlikely that customers will purchase from your Farm on a regular basis. However, when you build a service that can be added to a weekly routine, your Farm delights customers and entices them to become a loyal buyer long-term.
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.