January 2020 - 30

FARM MARKET & AGRITOURISM
Try meal kits, customer experience, personalization
By Brian Moyer
FGN Columnist
There is a lot of concern about meal kit
companies and Amazon's negative affect
on retail markets. According to a report
by Statista in 2017, it was estimated that by
2025 the meal kits will be a $5-billion-dollar
industry. But, since
that report, meal kit
companies have had
a major downturn.
According to that
BRIAN MOYER
same report, the
customer retention
rates look like this:
after one month,
77% of customers
continued to
purchase meal kits. After six months,
48% continued and after one year, only
29% continued to purchase. Why are the
retention rates so low?
In a consumer survey conducted
by Market Force Information, 57% of
respondents said they weren't getting
enough value for money as their reason
for leaving.
If there is one thing our farm markets can
do is give value for money! Most farmers
are afraid that they don't give enough
food to their customers which is why the
number one reason our CSA (Community
Supported Agriculture) customers leave
is because they feel they are getting TOO
MUCH food!
On the bright side, those who have
tried meal kits are at least cooking!
They've experienced cooking with quality
ingredients so they will continue to seek
high quality food which means they
should be purchasing those ingredients
from your farm. We can also give our
customers something that the meal
kits can't deliver on and that is a great
experience and relationships.
Look for opportunities to create
" personalized " solutions for your customers.
A market that I work with conducted a
survey of their customers asking them how
the market should offer their meals. Option
one, in raw form? All the ingredients, but
the customer would have to do the prep.
Option two, in prep form where everything
is sliced and measured and the customer
would assemble and cook or option three,
everything is prepared, and the customer
would take home and bake.
Most of the customers surveyed preferred
the third option but, in the end, what the
market's customers actually purchased was
already cooked meals that can be taken
Growers need to provide sensible options to overabundant Community Supported
Agriculture offerings.
home and served. The point being this
market is catering to their customers needs
by asking them. As the market owner told
me, " My customers are busy. They don't
have time to cook and they will pay to save
time. " This market is solving problems for
their customers and when you do that, you
create loyal customers.
Technology in the consumer world
increasingly knows what we buy, how
often we buy, and how much. Some farm
markets use this technology as well, but it
cannot match having a relationship and
connection with our customers. Retail
consultant John Stanley said, " We all want
to be treated as an individual and we all
have problems we need solutions for. The
more we can personalize the solutions we
offer the consumer, the more successful we
will be as retailers. "
We know that retail is evolving so
we need to pay attention to what our
customers are looking for, what problems
can we solve and create personalized
solutions and an exceptional experience
for them.
We cannot compete with what these
large companies provide but we can look
for things that they can't do and capitalize
on that. Let's take advantage of some " old
school " technology like a conversation and
a handshake. FGN
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January 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2020
