When Fiddlehead Farms had a smaller yield of spinach than expected, farmer Heather Coffey needed a quick solution to update over 150 customer orders with smaller bags of spinach.  Luckily, LFM’s latest software update includes bulk options to help farmers change multiple customer orders with just a few clicks of a button.

“I can see all members who ordered spinach, check a box to select all the orders, and put a new price per bag so everyone could get a smaller bag of spinach instead. LFM’s new features worked like a charm to make sure everyone could get a taste!” -Heather Coffey, Fiddlehead Farm

On pack day, farmers don’t have time to waste—that’s why LFM is making it easy to make bulk order changes with just a few clicks. Watch the video below to see the steps to update products from multiple orders at once!

Ready to save time when it counts? Schedule a demo with Local Food Marketplace.

Here are the changes you can make to multiple your orders at once:

• Apply a Promo Code
• Update Customer Location
• Update Order Period
• Add a Distribution Fee
• Add a Product
• Swap Products
• Credit Products
  

  Bulk Update Options on Local Food Marketplace

Here’s how LFM customers can make these changes:

1. 1. • On the Orders page, new options under the “Bulk Actions” drop down can help you make quick changes to multiple customer orders at once. Changing pick up locations at the last minute? Offering a special discount? Need to add on a different product due to crop failures? Just select the check box for impacted orders, and select an option under “Bulk Actions.”
      • On the Pack Orders page, sort orders by “product.” If you’d like to swap a product, select the double sided arrow.

More Ways to Save Time When Selling Local Food:

• Optimize your pack line! Here’s how one food hub reduce their pack line hours by 40%
• Time is Money: How to Save 20 Hours a Week
• How to Save Time on Producer Payments

The post [New!] Bulk Order Updates to Help You Save Time first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

Eight Ways to Save Hours on Your Pack Line This Summer

Summer means longer days… and more hours at the pack line. Keeping large inventories organized and fulfilling custom orders for your shoppers takes work. With the amount of time and labor you spend packing orders, expanding sales channels or offering more variety to your customers may seem impossible.

Delivered Fresh is an online food hub that aggregates products from over 60 local farmers and delivers to hundreds of homes each week. For Delivered Fresh, managing their produce pack line started to get out of hand during the explosive growth of online ordering at the beginning of the pandemic.

But by stepping back and analyzing their process, Delivered Fresh was able to make a series of small changes that ultimately reduced their pack line time by 40%. How did they do it? Read on for eight ways Delivered Fresh is saving time on their pack line this summer—and how LFM can help.

Delivered Fresh uses Local Food Marketplace’s software to power their online hub. From generating pack lists to creating delivery routes, LFM’s features help support hubs, farmers, and markets grow without increasing time and labor costs. Reach out today to schedule a software demo and learn more about how LFM can help you save time and take on more orders.

Eight Ways to Save Time on Produce Pack Lines

1. Where to Start: Analyze your Process.

At the heat of the pandemic, the six-person order fulfillment team at Delivered Fresh was sometimes working past one in the morning to pack weekly orders. So how did they reign in this process to their current system, which takes a fraction of the time? According to Operations Manager David Nowacoski, the first step was to figure out what wasn’t working.

We started to time our process from the moment we received products to the moment they were out the door. And then we started looking at every step and asking, how can we make it better?”

By analyzing their current process, the team at Delivered Fresh was able to identify bottlenecks in the process. David encourages businesses to get out a stopwatch and time your process.

David advises food hub managers to identify exactly what is slowing you down before making any changes. “Don’t try to implement something unless you know the problem you’re addressing.”

After fully analyzing their process, the following adjustments saved Delivered Fresh hours of time on order fulfillment.

2. Count and organize product as soon as it’s received.

Simplifying your packing process starts from the moment a product enters your warehouse.

Common mistakes in the receiving stage include not counting incoming product. If a shipment is misdelivered or incorrectly harvested, that’s something you’ll want to know as soon as you receive the product—not on delivery day when you realize you’re short a case of carrots for your wholesale orders.

The Delivered Fresh team uses LFM to generate a pick list to double check and organize producer deliveries.

Delivered Fresh works with over 60 producers—so organization and communication with each producer is key.

We asked David: How do you streamline communication between the hub and all your producers?

That’s something that Local Food Marketplace has taken care of for us from day one. From the automated pick list going out the door, to the ability to just send a message to all the producers—we don’t need to add anything to the equation. LFM’s system handles the communication piece really well for us.” – David Nowacoski

3. Pre-pack: Break down larger cases right away.

Rather than immediately putting cases of food into storage when they arrive, the team breaks down the products into smaller sizes. For example, a 50-pound box of potatoes will get broken down into one-pound bags, which are easier to grab later and toss into bags for customer orders.

This way, they know how many cases of each product to set aside upon arrival for larger wholesale orders. After that, they can focus on breaking down the rest of the larger cases into smaller sizes for customer orders.

Weighing and packaging vegetables as soon as they arrive at the hub is a huge time saver. And the team uses a picklist generated by LFM to make sure they have the right amount of product available for final orders.

4. Plan Your Routes Efficiently!

Delivered Fresh doesn’t wait until the day of to plan their delivery routes. Luckily, this process is made easy through LFM’s integration with Routific. This routing software is able to quickly plan efficient delivery routes that help drivers hit the most stops in the least amount of time and mileage.

After generating a series of routes in the system, the team creates a summary sheet for the delivery driver that lists the address for each stop, as well as customer names and phone numbers.

5. Decide what works best for your packing lists: Paper or Digital.

Even in a digital world, paper has some advantages.

The staff likes to use paper for the convenience of quickly checking off items, circling products that haven’t been packed, writing notes in the margin, or carrying the list around with them to the walk-in freezer – where carrying iPads wouldn’t be practical or possible.

However, digital does come in handy for Delivered Fresh. Delivered Fresh sells some products “by the pound” rather than “by the each.” Selling by weight can trip up many online ordering systems, but it’s not a problem with LFM. The staff at Delivered Fresh weigh out products sold by pound when packing orders, and then use an iPad to edit weights directly on customer order forms within LFM. This automatically updates and calculates prices.

 6. Create Stations on Your Pack Line

The day before delivery, the Delivered Fresh team starts packing orders.

To efficiently manage your pack lines in a bustling hub like Delivered Fresh, assign different staff to each of the sections of your inventory space, such as freezer, walk-in cooler, or dry goods area.

At Delivered Fresh, the staff splits responsibilities into three areas (freezer, fridge, and shelf), and then generates pack lists for each staff member. The checklists are sorted by product to make it easy for staff to pull orders together.

We really need to be as quick as possible packing orders, and being able to sort by product on LFM is perfect. We can sort the packing list just for frozen items for our staff working in the freezer. For stuff like that—LFM just works perfectly.”

LFM offers versatile sorting options for pack lists, allowing grouping by order, product, customer location, route, producer, or packing order.

An LFM-generated packing list grouped by product.

7. Save the fragile products for last!

You’d never want your cashier at the grocery store to put a loaf of bread on the bottom of the bag. Apply this same logic to the order you pack customer orders.

We don’t prepack eggs. We wait until just before they go out the door to avoid breakage. And we don’t prepack bottles of milk because they’re just too bulky. So staff will circle those items on the shelf so the packers of the truck know to grab those items.”

8. Pack/Load Products in Reverse Order of Delivery

Once bags from all three stations are filled, they are added to a small cooler for each customer. Coolers are placed in the fridge in reverse order of delivery, to be ready to go in the truck the next day.

On delivery day each Thursday morning, the team follows a Route Summary Sheet to place orders in the truck in the most logical order—so that the first order to be delivered is the last one placed in the truck.

The small amount of time planning and arranging the correct order to load up the van can save delivery drivers hours of time a week when delivery product.

9. Double Check Products as You Load the Van

The last thing you want is to leave an order behind! Even if you team has packed every order perfectly, you should still double check to avoid mistakes.

When loading the van, the driver at Delivered Fresh uses a Route Summary Sheet from LFM to confirm that every order makes it to the truck.

We all make mistakes – but a strong inventory management system makes it easier to correct them. If the Delivered Fresh team finds some leftover products after the van has been loaded, they can sort orders by product within LFM to check which customers were meant to have that product.

The Results:

Prior to streamlining their process, Delivered Fresh needed three dedicated delivery days to get all their orders out the door. After analyzing bottlenecks, the hub delivers the same number of orders in just two delivery days. Getting their fresh food sooner has made a world of difference to Delivered Fresh’s customers.

Ready to find time savings that even your customers will notice? Reach out to LFM today to learn more about how our software can help you streamline your process.

How LFM Can Help.

Looking to cut down your time on the pack line? Here are just some of the features that are helping hubs like Delivered Fresh cut their packing time by over one third this summer:

• Automated Pick and Pack Lists
• Efficient Route Planning
• Automated producer and customer communication

Join us for a free demo to learn more.

Check out the resources below to learn more about how LFM is helping local food grow:

• Learn how farmers are using data to grow profit.
• Looking to save time? Here’s how to gain 20 hours a week.
• Check out our free Guide to Increasing Average Order Value
• Read about how LFM helps one food hub work with over 50 producers:
  • “What helps is that LFM is organized in a way that as producers, we list inventory ourselves, set prices, and describe our own products. We maintain the transparency of sourcing—you can see where every product comes from and customers value that.” –Kate Donald, Stout Oak Farm
• Want to keep up with all things Local Food Marketplace? Join our email list!

The post How Delivered Fresh Cut Produce Pack Line Times by 40% with Local Food Marketplace first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

Dreaming Out Loud is a DC-based nonprofit with the mission of creating economic opportunities for marginalized communities through building a healthy and equitable food system. Their CSA program, called Black Farm CSA, aims to economically support black and brown farmers. The program was also created to bring more access to high quality food to the community.

We recently sat down with William Jennings, the Food Access Program Manager of the organization. Read on to see how Local Food Marketplace (LFM) helps Dreaming Out Loud spread the word about their program, increase food access, offer customizable farm shares, grow sales, and keep good data.

Black Farm CSA Facts:

• • Economically supporting marginalized communities
  • Using LFM to sell 4 different types of farm shares
  • Gained 1,000 new customer accounts in 2022
  • Home delivery to DC residents or pickup at farmers markets
  • Produce from black, brown, and value-aligned farmers

How LFM helped Black Farm CSA Grow:

• • More options and opportunities for customers
  • New customization options for CSA subscribers
  • Adding new sales channels
  • Strong data for nonprofit reporting

About the Organization

Dreaming Out Loud is a mission-based nonprofit that aims to fill the food access gaps in Washington DC. The organization operates as a food hub, which aggregates and distributes food produced by local Black farmers. In an effort to combat systemic inequalities in the food system, Dreaming Out Loud launched Black Farm CSA.

“We offer a CSA program called Black Farm CSA, because we want to highlight black, brown, and value-aligned farmers in the local area. We want to economically support them. We also want to highlight that these farmers exist, and this is the high-quality produce they are growing.”

Today, Dreaming Out Loud works with 30 local food producers. Black Farm CSA offers four different types of farm shares via their online platform: The “Farmer’s Bounty” Share, The Green Share, The “Ready-for-Dinner” Share, and a Customizable Share.

Spreading the Word

Dreaming Out Loud hosts in-person farmers markets, but also sees online sales as an important medium to reach more members of the community, and to spread the word about Black Farm CSA.

“Using LFM as an online platform to better spread the word about our CSA was a great approach,” says William. “We wanted to market to people that would see our online storefront. We are able to spread the word faster and better through an online platform.”

Local Food Marketplace’s software platform also offers markets like Dreaming Out Loud the option to list exactly which farm each produce is coming from. Market managers can share more about each farmer and producer through profiles on the “Meet Our Producers” page.

William found that offering products online through LFM has helped to increase food access for the community. With Black Farm CSA’s LFM-powered storefront, “there’s an easier approach to actually order. People don’t need to leave their house and travel far away. There could be economic barriers such as not having a car—so we’re offering a way to order online. We’re giving people the choice that they don’t even have to leave their home. They can order online and we can deliver to them.”

Why LFM’s Platform?

Prior to using Local Food Marketplace, Black Farm CSA was sold through a website with limited options. Without a robust software system, the organization was unable to offer many choices for their customers.

“With LFM, we can give our customers even more options. We are able to do delivery, and offer an e-commerce store.”

Flexible Payment Options

In the past, customers paid up front for the entire season of CSA shares. With LFM, the organization was able to implement a pay-by-order system.

“We set up our LFM site so that these shares are pay by the order. So you don’t have to pay a huge fee at the start of the season,” says William. “Our CSA program is more of a subscription program where you can pay by the week, you can put it on hold if you want, you can cancel it or you can switch to another of our four CSA shares. We want to make it as customizable and adaptable for the customer as they want.”

New Sales Channels

With their previous online site, Dreaming Out Loud was only selling their CSA shares online. With LFM, the organization is also listing individual items from their inventory on their ecommerce site.

“So, in addition to buying a CSA share online, LFM gave us the opportunity to give customers a way to buy a single product,” says William. “So, you can order a couple of apples or a bunch of collard greens instead of buying a whole CSA share. That led to an increase in new customer accounts because they could see all of the availability on our website.”

In fact, Black Farm CSA saw over 1,000 new accounts created in LFM over the course of 2022—their first year using the platform.

A Better Ordering Experience

Black Farm CSA uses social media posts to encourage online ordering. Source: https://www.instagram.com/blackfarmcsa/

“Using LFM also increased ordering because it made ordering more enticing.” For Dreaming Out Loud’s customers, LFM’s ecommerce site offers a more enticing ordering experience. William had found that customers appreciate the ability to browse the online store and chose single items based on their photos, rather than only being locked into a pre-ordered CSA.  

“We also make Dreaming Out Loud value-added products such as seasonings and granola and other items so we can not only sell the produce that we aggregate from our black, brown, and value aligned farmers, but we can sell value-added products that we make from their produce. Being able to sell that online too was a definite plus and a definite reason why we sell using LFM.”

Subscription Builder

Black Farm CSA introduced a new share option—customizable shares—in 2022. For this share option, shoppers can choose what items they’d like to have in their farm share each week. This was possible thanks to LFM’s new Subscription Builder software.

“We love that Subscription Builder gave our customers even more options. And it gave us a new way to do CSA. Before Subscription Builder we never had the customizable share option, so it was new for us, it was new for customers. I think it gave people a new idea of how CSAs can be run.”

What Customers Wanted

William found that before using LFM’s Subscription Builder, customers were asking for the option to customize the produce that came with their farm shares.

“And then LFM came out with Subscription Builder, and for some customers that really sealed the deal on why they wanted a CSA share from us.”  

Growing Sales

William attributes the growth of Black Farmer CSA to LFM’s user-friendly storefront, the ability to offer a whole inventory to customers, and the new customizable share options.

“We’re seeing an increase in the numbers of customer accounts that have been created on the site. That has jumped up dramatically. We’re also seeing an increase in the amount of orders we’re getting.”

Data Reporting

William sees accurate data reporting as an important part of keeping the nonprofit running. “LFM has really helped us out on that front. Before this year, our data was in multiple different places. We didn’t have a central home to access data. With LFM, all of it ties to the back end. You can see all of the data that has been gathered there and search for it easily. And that really gives us some more ease.”

“Since we’re a nonprofit, we need figures and stats. We don’t only need to know how the CSA is doing at the end of the year, but how it’s doing in the middle of the year, or the first month, or a random week in July. We need this data for outside reporting, so it’s a great function to be able to easily compile all the data reports to see how we’re selling and what we’re selling. It tells us more about why we’re selling when we can look at the data from the past not only months, but years.”

If you’re looking for the right software to help your organization sell local food, please don’t hesitate to reach out for a free demo of LFM.

Looking for more ways to grow your business and save time? Check out some free resources for farmers and food hubs:

• • • Read about how LFM helps one food hub work with over 50 producers:
      • “What helps is that LFM is organized in a way that as producers, we list inventory ourselves, set prices, and describe our own products. We maintain the transparency of sourcing—you can see where every product comes from and customers value that.” –Kate Donald, Stout Oak Farm
    • Looking to save time? Here’s how to gain 20 hours a week.
    • Check out our free Guide to CSA Retention
    • Want to keep up with all things Local Food Marketplace? Join our email list!

The post How Dreaming Out Loud’s Black Farm CSA Gained 1,000 New Members with LFM first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

For CSA farmers, finding technology to support their unique needs can be a challenge. We recently sat down with Heather Coffey of Fiddlehead Farm to talk about how LFM helps her offer CSA (community supported agriculture) shares all year long to families in Ontario.

Heather Coffey of Fiddlehead Farm

LFM Customer Profile: Fiddlehead Farm

• • • An organic vegetable farm in Prince Edward County, Ontario
    • Founded by Stephanie Laing & Heather Coffey in 2012
    • Grows over 50 varieties of vegetables on 11 acres, with a small team of staff
    • Provides farm shares to 300 CSA members

Fiddlehead Farm is committed to promoting a sustainable food system by following organic practices, as well as committing to offering seasonal vegetables to its CSA members all year long. As Heather puts it “We feed people year-round because people eat year-round.”

Read on how Local Food Marketplace (LFM) makes it easy for Fiddlehead Farm to sell customized farm shares online.

Creating Customizable Farm Shares with LFM’s Subscription Builder

Why Customize?

One of Heather’s priorities for selling local food online is a platform that can accommodate Fiddlehead Farm’s unique CSA format. With the help of LFM’s newest Subscription Builder software features, the farm is able to give CSA members the power to fully customize the items in their farm share.

“Customizable subscriptions are a no-brainer for me,” says Heather. “[Fiddlehead Farm’s CSA members] are making the commitment to local and the commitment to eating what’s in season, so I can at least give them the choice of everything that’s in the garden.”

Subscription Builder: How it Works

Heather walked us through the step-by-step process of using Subscription Builder, how it helps her to sell shares and to support her farm’s mission of a more accessible model for local food.

Each week, Heather puts together a box of produce worth around $25 or $35. A few days before members pick up their shares, they have the option to add, remove, or replace certain items in the share. LFM’s software will then adjust their price accordingly. This is important to Heather.

“I want them to pay for what they’re getting. And I don’t want them to pay for anything they’re not getting. Subscription Builder allows us to ensure that we are only charging members for the vegetables they’re getting, and not penalizing them for wanting something different or for not wanting as many vegetables this week. We grow food and I want it to be eaten.”

The Process: How to List Subscriptions For Sale

Each week, Heather goes out into the field to list what’s for sale this week, “I list things on my clipboard—sometimes I take my phone to update it live but usually I just write it on my clipboard first. LFM automatically fills all the leftover inventory from the prior week, and then I scroll through the list to see what inventory I need to adjust for the current week.”

Customers are able to edit the items in their weekly subscription from Fiddlehead Farm.

LFM makes it easy to keep inventory up-to date: “All the products I have listed are already there. The products are already listed from last week if I didn’t sell them all. So it’s really easy to update on a weekly basis what is actually available for my customers.”

Next, Heather sets up her weekly farm share in Subscription Builder. “The software shows me the total value of the items going into the shares.  Sometimes I edit the value because I want to keep my shares at $25 or $35 a box. Then I just say ‘create orders’ and the system just puts all the vegetables into people’s carts for them.”

“Every week I fill the basket with what I think is the best of the garden. I love the control I have for filling those baskets. It means that I can rotate different crops through to make sure members get a good taste of the fields throughout the season.”

The Process: What the Customer Sees

Once Heather choses what’s in the box each week, she uses Subscription Builder to provide full flexibility for her 300 CSA members.

“And then customers have whatever time I’ve specified to edit what’s in their box. They can use the pencil to change the number of products, they can use the trash can to take something out, and then they can click on continue shopping to add other items into their cart.”

Specific LFM Features that Fiddlehead Farm Loves

Heather shared with us a few reasons that LFM stood above the competition when it comes to selling local food online.

1. A Price Point That Doesn’t Punish Growth

Heather appreciates LFM’s straightforward pricing system, where we never charge a percentage of sales fee.

LFM’s business model makes sense from my perspective. You build the platform, I pay for it on an annual basis. I get the software and the volume of my members or sales doesn’t change what you’re providing me. And I really appreciate that LFM is not charging me a percentage cut of my sales, which is brutal and so true of most other platforms. That’s very important to me.

Heather also finds LFM’s help documentation for customers quite useful. “I’ll have a question, and in a couple of clicks I’ll be like ‘yes! This is it!’. And that’s really good.”

“You’ve got a really amazing online support manual, which makes it much easier to go in and answer my own questions and figure out how things work. There are lots of screenshots, which helps.”

A veggie box from Fiddlehead Farm!

2. A Supportive Team

“One of the things I really like about LFM is that it’s a small tech support team—It’s not like I’m talking to ten different people all the time. It’s an established platform, there’s not crazy bugs to deal with. You guys know what you’re doing, you know how to do it.”

3. Common Goals

Heather sees shared goals between Local Food Marketplace and her own farm.

“So much of our farm is based on efficiency, what makes sense, and what’s simple to do. It feels like LFM’s approach to running an online system is very similar to my approach to running a small farm. It just makes sense.”

4. Control Your Own Data

Heather appreciates using a flexible, customizable platform that truly feels like her own. “I have control. I can do pretty much everything.”

Having access to sales data and reporting is also hugely helpful in making decisions from season to season. “The platform provides the sales data and information we need to modify our production based on what people are actually eating.”

Because at the end of the day, “we don’t want to produce more, we want to produce better.”

Expanding to Other Markets

Planting at Fiddlehead Farm.

LFM’s unique inventory management capabilities have also allowed Fiddlehead Farm to expand its sales to wholesale markets.

“LFM has really provided me with a more professional way to go about selling wholesale.

The same inventory I’m listing for CSA is available for wholesale orders. This was a really big win for us—We have not had a solid wholesale system yet, and there are a number of local restaurants who want local food. I’m happy to help them get it, provided we have a system in place.

I’m happy with the system and the way it’s working, so I feel confident to take on those extra restaurants, which I didn’t feel capable of until joining LFM. So it really boosted our ability and confidence in pursuing other sales opportunities as well.”

Heather’s Advice for Transitioning to a New Software Platform

For Heather, “the transition to LFM was a no brainer.” If you’re considering changing your software platform, feel free to contact us for a free consultation. And read on for Heather’s advice.

Firstly, try to plan ahead so that you’re onboarding before your busy season, not in the heart of summer.

Secondly, set up a FAQ page for your customers.  Local food shoppers will have a range of tech knowledge or experience with shopping online. To help her customers shop more smoothly, Heather set up an online FAQ. “I’m in the field, so I’d like to give my customers all the tools to answer any questions they have on their own.”

Finally, plan some office time for your first few months “live.” There will always be a learning curve for both you and your customers when settling into a new online system. Setting aside some time early on to really set things up the right way can make all the difference. 

Heather advises, “The more your can get to your customers answers before they ask the question the better!” This is where communication via emails and an online FAQ come in. Now that Fiddlehead Farm is fully setup in LFM, Heather is impressed by how few emails she gets from customers. And she doesn’t have to spend too much time online either “The actual time I spend using the LFM portal is maybe three hours a week. It’s mostly working out the details of what I want to include in my veggie box that ties up my time. Once I get to the input stage, it’s nice and quick!”

Looking for more ways to grow your business and save time? Check out some free resources for farmers and food hubs:

• • • Read about how LFM helps one food hub work with over 50 producers:
      • “What helps is that LFM is organized in a way that as producers, we list inventory ourselves, set prices, and describe our own products. We maintain the transparency of sourcing—you can see where every product comes from and customers value that.” –Kate Donald, Stout Oak Farm
    • Looking to save time? Here’s how to gain 20 hours a week.
    • Check out our free Guide to CSA Retention
    • Want to keep up with all things Local Food Marketplace? Join our email list!

The post Creating Customizable CSAs with Fiddlehead Farms first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

From farm stores and markets to wholesale and restaurants customers, there are so many ways to sell local food. Read on to learn about an organic farm that is using Local Food Marketplace as a single software solution for selling to four different sales channels.

Looking for an all-in-one system?

Get your FREE Demo!

LFM Customer Profile: Blue Sky Organic Farms

David Vose, Founder of Blue Sky Organic Farms.

• • A certified organic family-run farm that has been growing in Arizona since 1994.
  • Founded by David Vose, a chef who wanted to find quality produce and decided to fill the void in the market himself by becoming a farmer, which led to starting Blue Sky Organic Farms.
  • “Our goal is to fulfill the need for local, high-quality organic produce in the immediate community.”

Today, Blue Sky Organic Farms operates a large CSA farm share program, participates in four weekly farmers markets, sells to a large wholesale client base, and runs an on-site farm store full of local food and products from other Arizona-based producers.

Local Food

Blue Sky Organic Farm’s products have gained a reputation across the country—but the number one goal of the farm and its staff remains providing local organic food to the immediate community. We recently spoke to Brenda Lopinski (CSA Manager) and Vicki Silvera (Office Administrator) about their experience implementing LFM’s software to help the farm reach even more local consumers.

Blue Sky Organic Farms switched to LFM in 2020, in a time when the demand for online shopping was higher than ever due to the COVID pandemic.

“With COVID, a lot of people really realized the importance of local food,” says Vicki. “If there’s a crisis and I can’t get it in the store, maybe I can find it locally—and oh my gosh it tastes so much better!”

Bringing New Sales Channels Online

Prior to adopting LFM, Blue Sky only sold online to one of its sales channels—CSA farm share members.

Blue Sky basically has four different sales channels. We reached out to LFM because we need ONE platform that had a shared availability and distribution solution. We wanted an online presence for all our sales channels, not just CSA.

Ready to bring your local food sales online? Reach out today for a free demo of our all-in-one local food sales platform.

Specific LFM features that Blue Sky Organic Farm Loves

Brenda and Vicki named a few reasons why LFM outshined the competition in helping Blue Sky Organic Farms increase its local food sales:

1. Unlimited Price Lists

Not only did LFM help Blue Sky bring the rest of their sales channels online, LFM has helped Vicki and Brenda set unique prices for the same products.

“Because we serve so many different types of retail and wholesale customers, from local valley distributors to boutique restaurants, we thought that we couldn’t sell online because of the unique pricing for those channels. Because LFM offers the ability to set multiple price levels, we can literally sell one product for a hundred different prices if we want to.”

2. Customized Online Experiences

Vicki & Brenda have been able to customize the online experience for different shoppers. For example, retail prices are slightly higher than wholesale due to the work required to box smaller quantities of product. However, retail customers can view and purchase the wide variety of local products at the farm store—from spices and seasonings to kombucha, as long as they are organic and local. For wholesale customers, the only products they see online are the foods grown and produced by Blue Sky Organic Farms.

3. Sales Growth Opportunities and Shared Product Inventory

Vicki of Blue Sky Organic Farms and one of the farm’s goats.

New online sales options for individual shoppers also meant new sales growth opportunities for Blue Sky.

“Before we implemented LFM, only CSA customers could buy online. Now, anyone can pick up an order. So we do have retail customers that are shopping online weekly without having to commit to a CSA box.”

One change to Blue Sky’s CSA program after switching to LFM is that members can now shop for add-on items through the online market. “Since LFM accommodates our whole inventory, we could expand our product offerings to CSA customers.

“We had a CSA customer develop some dietary restrictions, so she couldn’t get her regular farm box. She was super excited to find she could keep ordering online and picking up from the farm store every week.”

4. The Support Team

Vicki says of the LFM support team “I have nothing but positive things to say about support team. Nick especially has been nothing less than responsive, he has worked really diligently with us. From a support aspect you guys rock!”

Looking for more ways to grow your business and save time? Check out some free resources for farmers and food hubs:

• • • Read about how LFM helps one food hub work with over 50 producers:
      • “What helps is that LFM is organized in a way that as producers, we list inventory ourselves, set prices, and describe our own products. We maintain the transparency of sourcing—you can see where every product comes from and customers value that.” –Kate Donald, Stout Oak Farm
    • Looking to save time? Here’s how to gain 20 hours a week.
    • Check out our free Guide to CSA Retention
    • Want to keep up with all things Local Food Marketplace? Join our email list!

The post One Online Platform for Everything Local Food first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

We recently spoke to Kate Donald—A Local Food Marketplace customer who has used the platform to sell online as both a farmer and a food hub.  Read on for more about Kate’s farm, the larger farm collective she cofounded, the impact of COVID-19 on online sales, and more.

Kate Donald of Stout Oak Farm

Stout Oak Farm

• • Organic vegetable farm in Brentwood, New Hampshire
  • Founded: 2012
  • Owned by Kate Donald
  • Sells veggies, seedlings, CSA shares, and a Farm Store Credit Share

Stout Oak Farm is a 5-acre Certified Organic vegetable farm in Brentwood, New Hampshire. They grow a wide range of annual vegetables, all kinds of greens, and many microgreens. One of the farm’s goals is to focus on sustainable growth through careful soil stewardship, and the farm recently became certified by the Real Organic Project—a movement focused on soil as the center of a healthy farm ecosystem.

Three River Farmers Alliance

• • A farmer-owner food hub in the Seacoast, New Hampshire Region
  • Founded: 2014
  • Owners: Kate Donald (Stout Oak Farm), Greg Balog (Heron Pond Farm), Andre Cantelmo (Heron Pond Farm), and Josh Jennings (Meadow’s Mirth Farm)
  • Connects 50+ farms and food producers to local homes, restaurants, and businesses

Kate Donald is also a founder and co-owner of the Three River Farmers Alliance. “When we founded in 2014, our goal was to make it easier for farmers to get their local food into the hands of more people, and to streamline the process. By sharing trucks and cold storage for example, we reduce the costs and resources needed to distribute our local food. “

Both Sides: Farmer and Farmer’s Alliance

Between Stout Oak and Three River, Kate reaches her customers in different ways in different times of the year. Using one platform for all of her local food sales helps Kate stay streamlined:

“Using the same software for both Stout Oak Farm and Three River was incredible. And with Connect, I’m excited about having even more integration between the two.”

Local Food Connect is our latest project to help increase opportunities for farmers through technology. The free app helps farmers manage inventory, products, and sales to multiple markets from a single login. Read more about Connect here.

As of 2022, Three River works with over 50 farmers. Using LFM has made this process manageable according to Kate:

“What helps is that LFM is organized in a way that as producers, we list inventory ourselves, set prices, and describe our own products. We maintain the transparency of sourcing—you can see where every product comes from and customers value that.

The amazing thing is that once producers learn to use LFM, they really take care of all the work of making the storefront populated with all that awesome stuff. The staff at Three River helps them make the most of the site, but all the content is from the farmers themselves. That really comes through to the customer.

LFM’s pick list feature is also extremely valuable. It helps us train farm crews. And once they can read that report they have everything they need to go about their day.

This all feeds back to what you’re doing with the Connect app, making it easy for farmers to list their own content for food hubs. ”

Administrative Challenges and Technology

Not every online sales platform is built the same, and Kate tried out six different online tools for Stout Oak Farm before switching to LFM in 2020.

One challenge before finding LFM was how to manage over 100 farm share members. According to Kate, “We were really excited to find that LFM’s subscription module worked really well for our CSA. A big draw of LFM is that it lets customers manage their experience of ordering CSAs for themselves, rather than waiting for us to prompt them through each steps with manual emails. It’s also so easy to accept credit cards on LFM, and we really like that we can customize payment schedules. The batch payment process is great!”

LFM also gave Kate the opportunity to implement a more unique type of share: a Farm Store Credit Share that allows members to purchase credits that they can later spend in the Stout Oak farm store on veggies, seedlings, or other local food products.

“It’s our most administratively challenging share, and using LFM has been the best system we’ve had! Customers can see for themselves when the credit is getting low, and that encourages them to log in and add money to their account. The system lets customers be proactive, we don’t have to hand-hold. Money keeps coming into the farm, and they keep getting local food! Before, we kept track on pencil and paper. It was simple but we had to do a lot of math! Now it’s all online, customers can manage it themselves, and LFM keeps track of everything.”

Sudden Growth and Quick Pivots in 2020

When businesses started shutting down at the start of the Covid pandemic, the owners of Three River Farmers Alliance decided to quickly pivot to home delivery. The contactless delivery service, Veggie-GO, was so successful that it now serves over 500 householders per week. Kate credits LFM’s powerful software with the ability to make changes so quickly:

“In 2020, we were so grateful that the LFM software could do so much more than what we were doing with it. We felt really lucky that we chose a platform that was more robust than what we needed at first, so it could accommodate that rapid change and rapid scaling up.”

The LFM system also helped smooth the process for Stout Oak Farm: “For my farm in particular, with the extra stress of 2020, we were scrambling to pack orders almost every day, and having systems that were easy for the whole team to use was really important.”

Focus on Local

One of Kate’s biggest priorities is helping customers know where their food comes from, even when they’re ordering online.

“Local Food Marketplace maintains the integrity you get from buying in person. It’s a transparent site, and customers can trust that when they go to our storefront, they are going directly to farmers. We hear all the time what a big priority this is for shoppers. With all the different types of food distribution out there, sourcing gets muddy. But when they visit our site they can trust where their food comes from.”

Not a Faceless Tech Company

One of the key reasons Kate prefers LFM to the six other platforms she has tried, is the personal experience with LFM.

“When I think of my experience with other software built for farmers, what I really appreciate about LFM is the communication. We’ve had such a positive experience thanks to the people. We’ve had a partner with Amy and the team, not just a contract with a software company.

When we get in touch to say “hey, we’d love to see this feature,” the answer is never “our software doesn’t do that.” The answer is always “we’ve heard that from other farmers and it’s coming in the next release,” or “that’s a great idea we’ll look into that,” or “here’s a work around that you can use.” That’s a really different experience than other less personal companies.”

The post Working Together: Selling Online as both a Farmer and a Food Hub first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

Read on to see how Local Food Marketplace (LFM) helps Upswing Farm offer more flexible CSA payment options, as well as keep a personal connection with a growing customer base.

LFM Customer Profile: Upswing Farm

Brittany and Kevin Overshiner of Upswing Farm. Source: https://upswingfarm.com/innovative-partnership/

Upswing Farm, Pepperell, MA
Farming Since: 2016
LFM Customer Since: 2020

Farm Facts:

• Certified Organic, Locally Grown
• Owned by Brittany and Kevin Overshiner
• Four seasons of farm shares
• Sliding scale CSAs with monthly payment options
• Over 400 Summer CSA members
• Moved locations twice in the past two years, yet still increased sales

How does LFM help you grow?

• Saving hours on admin time
• Modern, professional website
• Easy and flexible monthly payments from CSA members
• Customers feel connected through personal accounts—and keep coming back to order

Want to learn if LFM is right for your business? Schedule a free consultation with us!

Interview with Brittany Overshiner

LFM: Thank you so much for speaking with us. Would you be able to give me a little background about your farm?

Brittany: Of course. We’ve been in business since 2016. Right after leaving a job as a farm manager with a nonprofit, I was offered the opportunity to lease land in Ashland, Massachusetts. That’s where we got our start in a year long partnership with White Barn Farm. We started small, with a 50 member CSA. Now, we have 4 seasons of vegetable shares, with 220 members in the winter, and we’re expecting 450 members for this season’s summer share.

In that time, we’ve had some land access challenges. We lost that first lease at the end of 2019, and during the start of the pandemic we were farming at three different sites, until we finally in January of 2021 secured farmland about an hour from our original site. So we’ve moved twice in the past two years, yet still managed to increase sales.

We’ve moved twice in the past two years, yet still managed to increase sales.

LFM: I’d like to hear more about your farm shares. Could you talk about your subscriptions and tiered pricing system?

Brittany: We offer our CSA on a sliding scale at three price points: standard, reduced, and “community supporter.” This way, if price point is a barrier, someone can opt for the lower tier and that’s supported by others who opt in for the higher level. I think this brings awareness to the fact that everyone deserves access to fresh food. And if the total isn’t in balance at the end of the year, we use funds from the community support tier to donate extra CSAs to food pantries. This way we are deliberately donating high-quality, varied produce that we could have sold for a profit—not just the stuff we grew too much of.

LFM: How does LFM help support your mission?

Brittany: It’s a really great feature to have a payment plan that I don’t have to manage. My goal is to make participating in a CSA more accessible. There are so many barriers to that, not everyone has the cash access to pay a seven hundred dollars in January for all their fresh food in the spring and summer. So to be able to offer customers the option of paying $80-100 a month, that’s way more manageable. I really enjoyed last year just logging in to LFM once a month and processing all the cash. It makes cash flow steadier for me, and payments more accessible to the customer. Being able to stagger the payment plans for each share is great—and I spend so much less time invoicing.

I really enjoyed last year just logging in to LFM once a month and processing all the cash—and I spend so much less time invoicing.

LFM: What was this process like before LFM?

Brittany: When I first started selling CSA shares, it was just a Google Form, and then I would enter that info into QuickBooks and send out invoices. The only way people could pay was with check. But I live in a modern world, and lots of people want to be able to point and click and be done. Being able to have people shop online is key, but part of why I chose LFM was because customers also have personal accounts. This makes it easy for customers who’ve ordered from us before to also pop into their account and preorder for our seedling sale or other popup sales. They already have that personal account [on LFM], so there’s more of a feeling of membership.

LFM: How have your customers reacted to purchasing your shares through LFM?

Brittany: Having an online site [through LFM] feels so much more professional than a Google Form. It’s a more modern way to interact. And containing that online ordering in a personal membership feels good to consumers.

Want to learn more about using LFM’s subscription module to sell your CSA shares more effectively? Schedule a free consultation with us!

Screenshot of Upswing Farm’s website, powered by Local Food Marketplace. Source: https://upswingfarm.localfoodmarketplace.com/Subscriptions

The post Growing Sales and Sliding Scales: An Interview with Upswing Farm first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

LFM handles all the basics of online sales, plus all the little things.

You aren’t just selling online. You’re also: Tracking EBT sales, creating pack lists and labels, managing the inventory in your warehouse, keeping track of info for certifications, paying producers, sending out emails to customers, and more.

LFM is a platform that does all the little things, making online sales easy for you AND your customer. So you can focus on growing your business.

Schedule your free Demo!

So what are the features that make LFM different?

LFM was built to power local food sales, and we are dedicated to providing flexible, proven solutions to real problems for local businesses.

• A simple customer interface that matches your website and branding. Your brand should shine through—we’re here to support you.
• A customized experience for all of your customer types. Chances are you offer different payment terms, payment options, pricing, or delivery options for your different customers. LFM allows you to customize the online experience so that customers won’t have to guess what products or options are available to them.
• A single point of inventory. Whether you’re putting bunches of carrots in your CSA boxes or selling cases to the local grocery store, you can sell all of them from the same shared inventory.
• Unlimited price levels. When you’re selling to multiple customers, your software shouldn’t limit you to one price level. With LFM you can set as many price levels as you need.
• Comprehensive subscription options: LFM supports many different CSA models (prepaid or pay by delivery) and gives you the accounting tools to keep track.
• Full-system inventory management: While most online sales platforms just look at current availability, LFM is a full system. Save time by using LFM to keep track of all the products coming in and out of your physical inventory—and save time on reporting later.

• Connect with producers: LFM has always helped food hubs automate communication with producers, and our new app Local Food Connect allows your farmers and producers to manage their own inventory and sales. Not just to your hub, but to other markets as well.
• Generate harvest and pack Lists: Once you have an order, you should never need to waste time re-entering that data for any reason. With LFM, you can print harvest and pack lists, as well as customer invoices, with the click of a button. Skip the time on your laptop and get to harvesting and selling.
• Square terminal integration & POS: Our Square terminal integration along with our simple POS features make it easy to take credit card payments in person while keeping track of inventory.
• Cost effective: Unlike other platforms, LFM has no percentage of sales or transaction fees that punish growth.
• A scalable platform: Whether you’re just starting out or have been in operations for years, LFM is designed for local businesses. Saving time on administrative tasks only becomes more important as your sales increase. Our platform can grow with you, and there are no transaction fees to punish growth.
• Our team: We aren’t just some faceless tech company; Our team is staffed with food hub veterans and tech professionals that understand farm and food hub operations, software technology, as well as the challenges of local food systems. We form real, lasting relationships with our customers.

And we’re always here to help. Customer feedback and relationships are at the core of our success. Read below to hear from some of our current customers:

I have personally sent dozens of businesses to LFM. I think that it’s the right tool for the job! It has all the capabilities that you need. Once you invest the time to get it set up – it can honestly save you ten to twenty hours of manual work every week.

–Caroline Pam of The Kitchen Garden Farm

Read more: From a Farm to a Collective: An Interview with Sunderland Farm Collaborative – Local Food Marketplace

For a while I was trying to build my own thing using Google Forms, having it dump into a spreadsheet, but I needed more. I thought there wasn’t anything out there that could facilitate what we needed, until we contacted you! LFM was the only software out there that could do what we wanted: provide a customer interface, printable and automated invoices, a harvest list, labels, and more.

-Danya Teitelbaum, Queen’s Greens

Read more: Small Farm, Big Competition: An Interview with Queen’s Greens

Since implementing LFM, the online ordering system has saved us 16 to 18 hours per week. It’s definitely helped us scale up a whole lot quicker. We can just tell our new customers to create an online profile and then view all our products… It’s saved us a lot of time.

-Josh Montgomery of Profound Foods

Read more: Quadrupling Customers & Saving Time: An Interview with Profound Foods 

I'm in! Schedule a Demo Today.

The post Evaluating Online Sales Platforms: What Makes LFM Different first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

Join us for a demo to see Marketplace and Connect in action!

Why Did We Build Connect?

We see Connect as the foundation of our vision to grow & scale the local food ecosystem. There is no local food ecosystem without the supply—the farmers that grow the food. Our goal is to help farmers grow without being overtaxed with administrative tasks. The Connect app will open new opportunities to farmers by giving them one place to manage all online and offline sales.

How Can Connect Help Farmers and Producers?

Everything From One Account: The explosive increase in online sales over the past few years has helped more customers access local foods. But if a single farm is selling to two or three different online stores or farmers markets, that can mean two or three different account logins, two or three different platforms to learn, and two or three different inventories to manage. Local Food Connect solves this real-world problem by offering farmers one app where they can manage their sales to all channels, including food hubs currently using LFM and even in-person transactions at farm stands and markets.

• Manage Inventory: Avoid overselling products or miscounting inventory by having one place to view and manage your total inventory, while also having the option to break it down by each store. 
• Create Consolidated Harvest Lists: Be ready for harvest days by using Connect to print clear harvest checklists or keep track on your mobile device, assign tasks to different harvest crews, and even print packing labels. Connect will do the work without the complicated spreadsheets.

Stay Organized & Plan: To know how much food to grow, where to focus sales, or just to plan for the season ahead, farmers need good data. Rather than running sales reports from several different sources and having to manually combine information, use Connect to access all of your data in one place.

• Integrated information: Use the app to get a quick glance on what’s coming up for the week, what you’ve sold, and what you’re low on.
• Simplify Reporting: Spend less time juggling spreadsheets, and more time growing your business. Connect provides report templates to get you started, but all your reports can be fully customized.

Get Paid Faster: The last thing a producer should spend time on is chasing down payments. Connect can help you get paid faster and easier than ever.

• Automation: Food hubs and markets that use LFM will be able to automate payments to their producers through Connect.
• Take Payments: Connect integrates with Square terminals to process payments in-person at farms and farmers markets.

User Friendly: Local Food Connect was designed to be easy and accessible.

• Mobile First: Connect is formatted for phones and tablets, so you can use the app on the farm, at the market, and on the go!
• Easy product mapping: Does one site sell your products as “Apples, Green” while your own inventory lists them “green apples”? Connect can automatically map these product names so you can have a more accurate idea of your sales and inventory.

How Can Connect Help Food Hubs and Online Markets?

We believe that the new Connect app will also help current subscribers to our Local Food Marketplace, by helping you better connect to producers you work with.

Payments: Pay your producers directly through Connect (available in Spring 2022). Save time on billing and keep track of payments in one place.

Easier for producers: Producers are experiencing platform fatigue with too many systems to learn. Connect’s simple, mobile-first design offers a fast and easy way for producers to update products they list on your marketplace, create harvest lists, pack lists and more! 

It’s free for producers to get started using Connect with your LFM site.

The post Announcing: Local Food Connect first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

So why should farmers bring together their online and offline sales? Here are a few critical reasons:

Better Customer Experience

• • Increased profits
    • By offering different sales channels, you can increase your customer reach. Many customers may prefer ordering online vs at your farmstand, store, or farmers market, and even the other way around.
  • Better customer experience & information
    • An integrated system provides a better customer experience – for example, customers can use account credits while shopping at your farmstand the same way they can use them online.
    • Regardless of where a customer makes their purchase with your farm, with the LFM system you can access complete customer purchasing and transaction history.

Better Data for Business Decisions

• • Up to date inventory – always!
    • Integrating all sales enables farms to have better inventory and information on what products are selling where.  Many farms find it challenging to track their product sales at farmers markets and farmstands and hence don’t have accurate data to make decisions.  Pulling that information into the same system used for online sales provides better information for decision making.
  • Valuable sales information at your fingertips
    • Where do you sell the most? What sells the best and where?
    • Using the LFM platform you can easily and quickly pull the data you need to make better business decisions at no additional cost!

Consolidated Reporting

• • No more tedious spreadsheets!
    • By integrating your online and offline sales with a platform like LFM, you can eliminate costly human errors and time consuming data entry.
  • Your entire farm can work from the same information.
    • From harvest team to pack team to the sales team, LFM utilizes specific users, reports, and features to maximize the information shared with your essential team members.
  • All your revenue in one place.
    • The key to successfully increasing profits is being able to monitor your revenue and margins all in one place. A cohesive revenue report that reflects your omnichannel sales is a direct way to a better business.
    • At LFM we offer robust, comprehensive reporting to all of our customers with no strings attached. We believe your data is yours, and it is essential for increasing your bottom line.

Marketing Integration

• • Use the data to send targeted messages
    • LFM now offers Mailchimp Integration to streamline your marketing! Quickly and easily compose targeted email campaigns to your customers based on data like first and last order dates, subscriptions, and more.
    • Create custom shopping lists and featured product lists that link directly to your storefront to embed directly in your Mailchimp emails.
    • Other popular examples of targeted messaging:
      • Send pre-order reminders to farmers market attendees.
      • Send event invitations and pickup reminders to CSA members
      • Send wholesale availability to restaurants, etc.

What are the real world examples?

• • Market style CSAs and shares. Accessing a customer’s account from the farmers market and adjusting for the items they’ve purchased on the fly allows you to track in detail how the customer has used their market style CSA and ensure accurate account details.
  • Customer pre-orders and pays at pickup.
  • Customer has account credit and wants to use it at the farmstand.
  • Farm wants to analyze top selling products for each farmers market.
  • Farm has limited products available and wants to offer them online and offline, without having to remember to update inventory.
  • Food hub has a store or stand and needs to track consigned inventory in store.

What is needed?

• • An easy-to-use customer interface for ordering online
  • An easy-to-use POS system for updating inventory live from the farmers market
  • A robust inventory management system

LFM offers all of these and more to deliver true omni-channel sales.

• • Customer Types & Price Levels
  • Square POS Integration
  • Mailchimp Integration with custom, embeddable featured products and shopping lists directly linked to the storefront
  • Inventory Management
  • Subscription and Membership features
  • Recurring Orders
  • Multiple ordering periods for custom distribution management and logistics optimization
  • Pick up and Delivery locations to coordinate online sales and in person distribution
  • Easy to use order interface for updating online orders with offline sales
  • Robust product setup to customize how and what you sell
  • …and so much more!

The post Boost Your Bottom Line: Integrating Online & Offline Sales for Farmers first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.