Are you selling farm shares?

Subscribing to a farm share—otherwise known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)—can be a great way for local-food lovers to support your business.

The classic CSA model is a “farmers choice,” where consumers embrace the element of surprise, not knowing what they’ll receive in each farm share. This model evolved over time, with many farmers, food hubs, and markets offering more-unique share styles.

When done right, offering transparency and flexibility to your farm share can keep your customers coming back—increasing retention rates and growing your sales.

Local Food Marketplace has long-supported sales of traditional farm shares and subscriptions (alongside other sales channels). Through our more recent “Subscription Builder” software—LFM enables farmers and food hubs to sell different types of customizable farm shares!

 Check out this video to watch LFM’s customizable subscription software in action!

Considering Customizable Options for Your Farm Share?

Keep reading to discover the top four ways that food businesses are adding flexibility to their farm shares! We’ve included some success stories of how real-life farmers and food hubs are leveraging LFM to sell their local produce.

What are the different types of customizable Farm Share CSAs?

Here are just some of the ways that single- and multi-producer organizations can offer flexible CSA-style farm shares:

• Buy-Down Model
• Farmers Choice + Add-on Items
• Flexible Farm Shares
• Fully Customizable Farm Shares

Local Food Marketplace supports all of these varieties of CSA models. Reach out today for a free demo to learn more.

What is a Buy-Down Farm Share?

In a buy-down farm share or buy-down CSA, customers pay a bulk subscription fee to the farmer ahead of the growing season. However, instead of receiving a weekly box, a credit is added to their account to spend as they wish!

This model creates loyalty between you and your customers (with credit to spend, they’ll keep coming back to your online store!). To succeed with this model, a software platform that offers transparency between you & your customer is key.

Buy-Down Model in Action! Stout Oak Farm

• Stout Oak Farm uses LFM’s software to offer a buy-down CSA model. Members purchase credits that they can spend at the Stout Oak farm store on veggies, seedlings, or other local food products. Before LFM, the farm-runners used a pen & paper to keep track of customer credits. That’s a lot of math! Moving to LFM’s platform made keeping track of this share effortless—and kept customers coming back. Read the Story!

“The Farm Store Credit Share our most administratively challenging share, and using LFM has been the best system we’ve had! It’s all online, customers can manage it themselves, and LFM keeps track of everything.” – Kate Donald, Stout Oak Farm

Including Add-Ons with your Farmer’s Choice Share.

Offering a traditional “farmers choice” CSA? Allowing shoppers to include “add-ons” with their weekly box gives shoppers more choice while bringing you more revenue. That extra jar of local jam or bundle of kale tacked on to their shares can add up!

This model is perfect for businesses that love the straightforwardness of a Farmer’s Choice Box, yet are looking for ways to sell more “extras” to shoppers—and increase their average order value. (Hint: we’ve written a whole guide about tips & tricks for growing the value of your online orders. Check it out here!!)

Add-Ons in Action! Blue Sky Organic Farms.

Blue Sky Organic Farms offers the best of their vegetable harvest in one weekly box. Shoppers don’t decide what goes in the box, but they can add extra goodies—like the local value-add goods that Blue Sky sources from local food producers across Arizona. Including add-ons to their box has grown sales opportunities for Blue Sky, plus made for happier customers!

Read Blue Sky’s Success Story Here!

“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’re selling even more now that we have an online presence for all our sales channels, not just CSA.” -Vicki Silvera, Blue Sky Organic Farms

What is a Flexible Farm Share?

With a flexible farm share, the farmer sets a price for their farm shares, and then includes a list of products available for substitution. The price of the box stays the same even if some items are substituted.

This is a great way for farm shares to accommodate allergies, preferences, and picky customers! If a certain veggie doesn’t work for a shopper, they can trade it for something else.

Many local food businesses offer an in-person “swap box” for folks to trade out vegetables they don’t like. With LFM’s subscription builder features—farmers can create an online swap box! It’s easier than ever to offer flexible farm shares.

Flexible Farm Shares in Action! Rosebird Farms

Rosebird Farms uses LFM to sell farm shares online. Through smart marketing, Andrea McAdow, the owner at Rosebird Farms has taught subscribers to get excited for the weekly email letting them know what to expect in this week’s farm share. From there, customers can login to LFM, review their items, swap products from a set list, and add more a-la-cart items.

Check out this video for a walk through of how Rosebird Farms uses email marketing to sell out her CSA in record time!

What is a Fully Customizable CSA?

With a fully customizable CSA, you put the choice in your shoppers’ hands! You create a base or suggested farm share, but before fulfilling orders, customers have the chance to make any changes they like! They can increase quantities, and remove or add items. Final price is determined by the exact items they have selected.

This option works best for businesses with very engaged customers who enjoy full control of their product selections. It’s a great way to let shoppers vary the amount of produce they buy each week, at a price that reflects the amount they take home.

This is truly a CSA model for the modern age, as full customization isn’t possible without powerful software support.

Fully Customizable Farm Shares in Action! Fiddlehead Farm

Fiddlehead Farm is committed to giving the CSA members the choice of everything they grow.

“LFM’s 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.” -Heather Coffey, Fiddlehead Farm

Read about Heather’s step-by-step process for creating customizable shares on LFM.

What Farm Share Works Best for your Business?

No matter what style of farm share you’re selling (from traditional to fully customizable), you need software that works with the unique needs of your business. LFM is an all-in-one platform that helps you plan, sell, and distribute local food. We support CSA subscriptions, retail sales, wholesale, and more, all from a single platform. Reach out today to learn how LFM can help your business.

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 Customizable Farm Shares: 4 Models first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

New LFM Feature: automatically generate a “What’s in the Box” Email.

Effective communication with your farm share customers is key to keeping them coming back season after season. Do you keep your customers in the loop after they sign up for your shares?

If you aren’t already sending a “What’s in the Box” email—start now. Not only does this email let your customers know what to expect in their upcoming share, it’s also an opportunity for you to build engagement and grow revenue.

To help our customers save time in their busiest seasons, Local Food Marketplace has recently added a feature that automates this process. Customers licensing the subscription module can schedule an email that will generate and send this email for all customers and share types. Interested in licensing the subscriptions module? Contact us today!

What’s a “What’s in the Box” Email?

A few days before farm shares are ready for pickup or delivery, send out an email that lets them know what local products you’ll include in their “box” this week.

Excerpt of a “What’s in the Box” Email generated by LFM.

Sending a “What’s in the Box” message before each share reminds customers to confirm their orders and to pickup their shares. Consistent emails also help further establish your organization as an exciting part of their weekly or monthly routine. Many shoppers look out for this email before planning meals for the week! The more that customers engage with your products in this way, the more likely they’ll be to sign up next season.

Combine this email with other materials that set CSA customers up for success. For example, post recipes on your website so that shoppers can get ideas for what to do with the food they order from you!

Customizable Farm Shares

If you offer customizable farm shares, use this email to remind members to make their final product selections. The “What’s in the Box” email should include a list of substitution options, and a link back to your storefront to customize their farm share.

By bringing customers back to your online storefront to customize their shares, not only will they be happier with the final contents of their box, they’ll also be more likely to add more items to their order.

Customers appreciate flexibility to accommodate their preferences, as well as transparency and communication through this consistent email.

Local Food Marketplace believes that transparency with your customer is key. That’s why we’re helping to streamline your process with automated emails. To learn more about how LFM’s software can grow your business, schedule a demo today.

Increasing CSA Engagement

To recap, here’s how sending a “What’s in the Box” email can help keep your CSA members engaged:

• • Drum up excitement for their upcoming farm share
  • Encourage members to visit you site – and add more products to their order
  • Establish communication from your farm as a consistent (and exciting!) part of their weekly routine

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 To Boost CSA Engagement & Grow Revenue with One Recurring Email 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.

In 2015, Small Farm Central coined “CSA Day” to recognize that February is the most popular time of the year to join a CSA (aka Community Supported Agriculture). Since then, the CSA Innovation Network has expanded this day into a full week in February dedicated to supporting and promoting Community Supported Agriculture. Please check our the CSA Innovation Network’s CSA Week page to learn more! There, you can sing up for the The CSA Innovation Network’s free toolkit, and add your farm/organization to the CSA Week Participants Map.

CSA Innovation Network CSA Week Page: https://www.csainnovationnetwork.org/csa-week 

When is CSA Week this year?

The CSA Innovation Network will be celebrating CSA Week from February 19 to February 25, 2024. If you’re running a CSA, this will be the week to focus on engaging with your customers. If you’re a local food advocate, this is the time to support local food producers by signing up for farm shares, and spreading the word both in person and online! Here at Local Food Marketplace, we’re proud to support local food producers.

We’ve put together some stories and resources to help you prepare for CSA week–see below! In the meantime, is your business ready for growing season? Local Food Marketplace provides software to manage both traditional and customizable CSAs. Learn more by scheduling a free demo today!

Start Here: Free Guides to Help You Retain Customers and Sell More

One of the benefits of local food for the consumer is forming a relationship with their food producers. By focusing on these customer relationships, you can create lifelong farm share subscribers. Check out the guides below for expert advice and proven strategies to retain your CSA customers, and to increase the value of these relationships.

1. Cultivate Customers & Grow Value: A Guide to CSA Retention

2. Increasing Average Order Size: A Farmer & Food Hub’s Guide

Resources from CSA Innovation Network

“CSA Day” was first started by Small Farm Central. The CSA Innovation Network has gone one step further to promote a full CSA Week from Feb 20-26. Check out their site for a free digital toolkit to help you promote your CSA: https://www.csainnovationnetwork.org/csa-week

Farm Share Success Stories

Learn how Farmers & Food Hubs are Running their CSAs.

Creating Customizable CSAs with Fiddlehead Farm

Check out Heather Coffey’s step-by-step guide to using technology to sell fully customizable CSAs.

“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.”

 

Flexible CSA Payment Options with Upswing Farm

“We use our LFM-powered site to offer our CSA on a sliding scale at three price points. 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.”

Expanding Sales Channels with Blue Sky Organic Farms

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.

“Before we implemented LFM, only CSA customers could buy online. Now, anyone can pick up an order. And since LFM accommodates our whole inventory, we could expand our other product offerings to CSA customers.”

How Do I Market My Farm Share?

If you’re getting ready to sign up CSA customers this February, you’ll want to harness your website & social media to tell your store. Check out these blog posts for some marketing tips to help you promote your CSA effectively.

1. Social Media Strategies to Maximize your Online Store

2. How to Use Press Releases to Promote Your Online Store

3. Farms & Facebook Pixels

4. MailChimp Integration for Powerful Marketing

5. How Quality Photos Drive Sales

How do I Chose a Software to Manage My CSA?

Running a CSA requires incredible attention to detail and organization. If you’re like many farmers, you’ve managed to do everything with Excel, QuickBooks, and email so far — but sometimes managing everything this way can feel like more trouble than it’s worth. Technology can help lighten that load.

Winter is the perfect time to onboard a new system that can help you stay organized, increase sales, manage data, and grow your business. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to LFM to schedule a demo to see our software in action and learn how we can help your business. In the meantime, read on to learn about how software can help you manage your CSA.

1. New Feature – “Subscription Builder” for Farm Shares

2. Evaluating Online Sales Platforms

What tools do I need to run a successful farm share?

A user-friendly website

 A way to manage deliveries or pickups

 Flexibility and customization options for customers

Easy inventory management

 Email communication with customers

Local Food Marketplace offers all of these tools in one single platform. And we’ve even added new features especially for those farms and food hubs that offer CSA shares & subscriptions.

If you have any questions about how LFM can help you to set up your farm shares for success, just click here to set up a free demo call.

More Resources to Help Upgrade Your Farm Share Subscriptions:

• • • • Here’s How Local Food Can Join the Subscription Economy
      • Cultivate Customers & Grow Value: A Guide to CSA Retention
      • How Farmers are using Data to Increase Profit
      • Growing Sales and Sliding Scales: An Interview with Upswing Farm
      • A Farmer’s Guide to Online Orders

Still searching for a CSA software solution? Meet with us for a free demo!

The post CSA Week Resources 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.

If your CSA is like most, customer retention is your biggest challenge. Are you keeping and growing customers from season to season? It takes an investment of time, effort, and money to get customers to sign up, and every year they stay with you, the returns on that investment grow. Read on for advice on how to do just that.

Retaining CSA Customers Year After Year:

The following tips are excerpted from our free e-book “How to Cultivate Customers and Grow Value.”

1. Start Early.

It’s never too soon to start selling next year’s shares to your current subscribers. Consider offering them an early bird discount on next season’s share. Keep in mind that you don’t have to cut into your margins in order to offer a discount. By making the cost of later sign-ups slightly more expensive, you can create a perceived discount for early sign-ups.

2. Build Healthy Connections Through Marketing.

Marketing to your existing customers can seem crazy, but it’s essential to cultivating the lifetime value of your relationships with them. Every additional season your customer stays with you cuts down the cost of acquisition.

Read More: Social Media Strategies to Maximize Your Online Store.

3. Be Responsive to your Customers.

Late fall is the perfect time to ask your customers what did or didn’t work for them this season. Ask in person, or share a short and simple survey via email. Be sure you ask your customers how likely they are to sign up next year—and why. Their feedback can be the key to helping you understand any changes you may need to make before next season.

You can find these tips and so much more in our resource: “How to Cultivate Customers & Grow Value: A Guide to CSA Retention.”

What tools do I need to run a successful farm share?

A user-friendly website

 A way to manage deliveries or pickups

 Flexibility and customization options for customers

Easy inventory management

 Email communication with customers

Local Food Marketplace offers all of these tools in one single platform. And we’ve even added new features especially for those farms and food hubs that offer CSA shares & subscriptions.

If you have any questions about how LFM can help you to set up your farm shares for success, just click here to set up a free demo call.

More Resources to Help Upgrade Your Farm Share Subscriptions:

• • • • Here’s How Local Food Can Join the Subscription Economy
      • Cultivate Customers & Grow Value: A Guide to CSA Retention
      • An Interview with Blue Sky Organic Farms
      • Growing Sales and Sliding Scales: An Interview with Upswing Farm
      • A Farmer’s Guide to Online Orders

Still searching for a CSA software solution? Meet with us for a free demo!

The post Solving Your CSA’s Biggest Challenge first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

We’re so excited to let you know about new software features to help you manage your customized CSAs, farm shares, and subscriptions!

There are many ways to sell online, but typical e-commerce platforms can’t accommodate the flexibility and variation of local food. Here are just some of the ways that LFM’s subscription software can help you:

Scenario: You’re a looking to offer your customers more selection options in your weekly farm share.

Community supported agriculture is a tried-and-true way for shoppers to support local farms. But someone who’s new to local food might be intimidated by a mystery box full of unfamiliar veggies. When it comes to their grocery list—not every shopper wants a surprise! But with LFM’s “Subscription Builder,” customers can see exactly what’s in this week’s share, and even customize it!

Our software makes it easy for farmers to designate substitution products for shoppers to trade with other items in their farm share. Allergies and preferences are no problem! Plus, shoppers can even tack on “extras” to their weekly share—like that fresh strawberry jam or local honey. Get your customers shopping your whole catalog, and keep growing your sales!

Products sold in subscriptions are tracked in the same way as everything else you sell—that means real-time product availability, pick lists, packing lists, sales reports, and more!

Communicating with farm share members is a snap: send out a weekly “what’s in the box” email straight through LFM! Members can receive their box as is—or customize week-to-week!

Scenario: You’re a food hub manager using farm shares to promote many different producers at once.

Farm shares can be a great way to bundle food from many farmers into one easy-to-order product. But managing these shares can be time consuming. That’s why LFM’s new Subscription Builder features were designed with food hubs in mind.

With Subscription Builder, food hubs can create farm shares directly from items already listed by your farms. Pair products from many different producers to create an exciting and varied farm share! And shoppers can always check the LFM storefront to learn the source of each product.

These products will also auto-populate on pick tickets for producers. Take the guess work out of ordering from producers, and let them know exactly how much to harvest!

Plus, see your average order size grow as your loyal share members check out the site each week to see what veggies to expect—and to tack on some extra treats and value-added items while they’re there!

Is Subscription Builder right for me?

These subscription features are just another way that LFM brings all of your sales channels to one place. From flexibility for customers, to increased sales for you, Local Food Marketplace is truly an all-in-one solution.

Are you a current customer looking to license the Subscriptions module and start using these new features? Please contact us today!

Still searching for a CSA software solution? Meet with us for a free demo!

More Resources to Help Upgrade Your Farm Share Subscriptions:

• • • • Here’s How Local Food Can Join the Subscription Economy
      • Cultivate Customers & Grow Value: A Guide to CSA Retention
      • An Interview with Blue Sky Organic Farms
      • Growing Sales and Sliding Scales: An Interview with Upswing Farm
      • A Farmer’s Guide to Online Orders

The post New Feature – “Subscription Builder” for Farm Shares! first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.

Plus, some new subscription features on the LFM platform

In 2019, businesses offering subscriptions grew five times faster than other companies (source: the Subscription Economy Index). This trend has only grown during the pandemic. Customers are seeking out convenient ways to get their favorite items (without spending more time in the store).

Where does local food fit in?

For local food, subscriptions are nothing new. Community supported agriculture (CSA) farm shares date back to the 1960’s and 70’s. Early CSAs were an effort to support small farms in the face of growing industrialization. In the pandemic, demand for CSA shares exploded when consumers faced food shortages, health worries, and a desire to support local businesses.

What’s new for local food? With all the subscription offers out there (from food to cleaning products to entertainment), customers have come to expect more options than ever.

As a local business, it can feel daunting to compete with big box stores or global corporations. But that doesn’t mean you can’t offer the customization, flexibility, and personal touch that your customers are looking for. That’s why Local Food Marketplace has been listening. We asked food hubs, farmers, and market managers what they’re looking for to better manage their farm shares, and we’re so excited to tell you about some new features coming soon.

Get My Free Demo!

CSA Management Software Features:

To help your customers:

Subscriptions are now customizable! Customers now have the flexibility to decide what their farm shares look like. Maybe they don’t love carrots, and would rather trade out for some radishes. Or you can have shoppers add on an extra bag of spinach, or throw in a jar of locally made jam. You can give shoppers the option!

To help you!

A single point of inventory: The kale in your weekly veggie box, and the kale sold by the bunch on you online store? It’s all pulled from the same inventory. So LFM’s software will generate simple pick lists that tell you and your producers exactly how much to harvest.

Keep an eye on your inbox to learn more about these features. Not getting our email updates? Drop your email here.

Are you a current customer ready to start using subscription features? Contact us today!

More Resources to Help Upgrade Your Farm Share Subscriptions:

• • • • Cultivate Customers & Grow Value: A Guide to CSA Retention
      • An Interview with Blue Sky Organic Farms
      • Growing Sales and Sliding Scales: An Interview with Upswing Farm
      • A Farmer’s Guide to Online Orders

The post Here’s how local food can join the subscription economy first appeared on Local Food Marketplace.