What’s The Verdict: Farmer’s Choice CSA or Buyer’s Choice CSA?
Buyers want to support local Farms, and one of the best ways to do that is through a Subscription to Farm Products for the coming season - often referred to as a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). CSAs offer buyers regular access to your Farm’s products, and in-return Farmers lock in recurring revenue, guaranteeing that products are paid for the season.
One question many Farmers face when they consider offering Subscriptions is whether to offer a “Farmer’s Choice CSA” or a “Buyer’s Choice CSA.”
Pros and Cons of Buyer’s Choice-CSAs
A CSA is a reliable source of revenue for your Farm and lets community members receive high-quality, nutritious food on a regular basis.
The idea behind a Buyer’s Choice CSA is noble, allowing buyers to purchase your products and choose what comes inside the box. It gives buyers the ability to customize what they receive, individually tailoring their order and guaranteeing that they’ll be eating items of their choosing. Farmers also gain an understanding of customer preferences, making it easier to plan ahead for next season’s bounty.
Unfortunately, however, a Buyer’s Choice-CSA can quickly become overly complicated, creating a headache and dramatically increasing costs for Farmers who attempt to organize and manage 100’s of custom orders. The overwhelming time and labor costs to individually assemble and pack Buyer’s Choice CSA boxes is not a scalable activity and negatively impacts your net profits. Packing each individualized order will take much more time as you’ll have to refer to individual buyer requests.
Logistically, a Buyer’s Choice CSA model also creates a massive headache for your pack crew when loading trucks for delivery day. Assorting boxes based on routes, pick-up locations, and home delivery all become increasingly more difficult when a driver must account for every individualized buyer for a given route.
On a small scale (<50 members), we see Farms can manage a Buyer’s Choice CSA model because the time and logistics challenges are minimized in a small operation. If you have a small Farm, offering a Buyer’s Choice-CSA is a great way to start building a base of loyal buyers. However, if you have the ambition to grow your business to 100+ members, you will quickly recognize the limitations and negative impacts of a Buyer’s Choice CSA model on your Farm operations, logistics, and bottom line (your profit margins and net income will suffer).
Pros and Cons of Farmer’s Choice CSAs
A Farmer’s Choice CSA is effectively a recommended Subscription purchase as selected by you - the Farmer. While many Farmers offer buyers the ability to offer opinions on their preferences, or a swap box at the pick-up location, the Farmer’s Choice CSA eliminates all the guesswork, time, and costs of individual box customizations. Farmers define “what’s included” with a Small, Medium, or Large CSA bundle - with general guidance on products included based on seasonality and availability from your Farm.
Based on data captured across millions of transactions, we find that 90%+ Buyers will opt-in to Farmer-recommended bundles. If you are building or operating a Farm that is scaling beyond 100+ members and multiple drivers, the cost savings of a Farmer’s Choice CSA model will readily cover any losses for buyers who are allergic to the lack of customization. The highly scaled CSA supported by Barn2Door with 1000’s of weekly members all offers Farmer’s Choice CSA model. Why? Because it works better operationally, logistically, and is much more profitable.
The most successful Farms offer between 5-7 options for Farmer’s Choice CSA, giving buyers some alternatives in the size and contents of the Subscription that fits their needs. Paired with convenient add-on products, this gives the Farmer more flexibility come fulfillment time, filling orders with the “best of the season.”
Ultimately, deciding on a Buyer’s Choice CSA or a Farmer’s Choice CSA is dependent on the size, scale, and operational goals of your Farm business. If you’re looking to grow and expand your business, then a Farmer’s Choice CSA model is the way to go. Your buyers trust your judgment and know that with Farmer recommended options, they’re getting the best of your products in season.
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My favorite thing about being a Barn2Door user is the subscription model within the software. When we first started out, we were totally reliant on à la carte orders to come through, and it was much slower than I hoped it would be. I knew people wanted to order from us, and I knew they were just forgetting and they were going to the grocery store because it was more convenient. So, I was desperate to find a way just to get these people on some kind of recurring model. Then thankfully, very soon after that, Barn2Door came out with the subscription option. So, we quickly created a meat and egg combination box.Say hi, Frankie.And people have totally loved it. We've got about 65 to 70 families signed up for this box now. They get their credit card charged automatically, the delivery comes automatically, and they no longer have to think about ordering from us anymore. I use a "farmer's choice" model, so they always get two dozen eggs, but then I choose what they get after that. This is mostly based off of a $75 option, but we also have a $150 option that's like a family style and it only comes once a month.We chose those two styles to use as a subscription. We call it a CSA because that's what people are most used to. It's very easy for the customer to sign up. They click the button on our website, it says, "Here are the dates that these items will be delivered to you". They put their credit card in one time; it's super easy. It's also super easy for me to set it up. I mean, I set it up years ago and I haven't really changed it since then.That's been the biggest saving grace for us as a farm because we know people want to shop with us, but we also know that they forget and that they're busy. It's hard to remember to meet order deadlines and to pick out exactly what you want and scroll through all the options. If they have the convenience factor of just picking one thing to sign up for one time—like a kind of a Netflix-style thing—they're going to love the convenience. They're going to not even remember that they ordered, and then meat will just start showing up at their door. They're delighted that all this delicious, healthy protein is just showing up and they didn't even have to think about it. So, that's my favorite thing. As far as numbers go, this recurring revenue is about 80% of our online sales. It is a massive percentage of our success as a local business that sells online and does local delivery. We couldn't be happier than we are with the Barn2Door subscription.
Barn2Door provides an all-in-one solution for Farmers to grow and manage their business. If you’re curious to learn why successful Farms run on Barn2Door, watch this 5-minute video.