Farmer Spotlight: Little River Farm
Founded in 2013, Little River Farm operates on three acres of land in Warren, Rhode Island. As a no-till Farm and Certified-Organic operation, Little River focuses on growing salad greens, microgreens, tomatoes, carrots, and herbs. Little River stands by the saying “let us garden for you,” committing to regenerative farming practices and providing their community with access to healthy, nutritious, and fresh food year-round.
As one of the newest members of the Barn2Door Farm Advisor Network, we recently sat down with Camille Abdel-Nabi on the Direct Farm Podcast. We got the scoop about how they’ve grown a loyal customer base and converted a complicated Buyer’s Choice CSA into a profitable Farmer’s Choice CSA Subscription model.
You can listen to the full episode here: Farmer Spotlight: Little River Farm
Experiencing Exponential Growth by Pivoting to Online Sales
As a first-generation Farmer, Camille and her business partner Robert met through their apprenticeship on a local Farm in Rhode Island. Pivoting Little River to operate online has opened the door to a larger customer base, more opportunities to serve their local community, and a streamlined path towards growing operations quickly. “Today, Robert and I are amazed to see how many orders we generate in a week, and remember that’s what we made in our first year of farming! We’ve expanded our customer base quickly, and I relate that to offering our customers the convenience of online shopping with a delivery program.”
Before selling direct online, Camille shared how Little River Farm lacked consistency in orders and the ability to reach new customers through farmer’s markets. “I wanted to get our products to more people outside the markets, but I was unsure how to do it. When the markets shut down, it pushed me to think about how I could continue to serve our community. I began using a Google Sheet, and it didn’t take long to figure out that manually accepting and tracking orders wasn’t going to work. So, we looked toward a regular Farm website but quickly realized that it wouldn’t work for us to grow long-term either. That’s when I found Barn2Door.”
Camille’s decision to use Barn2Door as their all-in-one business solution was simple. They needed a tool that understands the unique nuances of Farm business needs. “Barn2Door gives us flexibility with multiple order dates and fulfillment schedules that other platforms simply don’t offer. The one-on-one account support, onboarding experience, store set-up, assistance with marketing, and the Barn2Door + Mailchimp integration were all things that initially attracted us. For how much we pay, we’re getting a lot of value from having a streamlined management system.”
Prior to using Barn2Door, Farmers average between 7-9 interactions with a customer before an order is complete. Camille recognized the inefficiencies and knew they needed to streamline the process by directing orders through the online store. “I regret not leaning in more to the online store in the beginning. I still had people call, email, and text me with their orders. But, when I finally funneled everyone to our online store, all those calls, texts, and emails went away. It reduced confusion for me and my employees, it streamlined our order management process, and increased our revenue.”
Camille shared that pivoting Little River Farm online has given the business many benefits – reducing waste, generating more consistent sales, and delighting customers with a convenient purchase experience. “The number one thing I love about online sales is that there’s no waste involved. Compared to the farmer’s market, it’s a guessing game if you’re going to sell something depending on factors like bad weather or a big event. With the Barn2Door Pick List, we sell items before they’re even harvested. It’s such a smarter business model where it’s cut our food waste and has allowed us to increase our profits.”
Read: Tactics that 3 Farms Implemented to Grow to $100k in 1 Year
Read: How This Farm Grew Its Average Order Size From $20 to $88
Streamlining their CSA with Farmer’s Choice Subscriptions
Since the early days of Little River Farm, Camille always ran a CSA, implementing what she referred to as a ‘farmer’s market style CSA.’ “People came to the market and chose what they wanted based on pounds, which was difficult to manage. We didn’t like the individual attention we had to give to each customer, so we stopped it.”
It wasn’t until Little River Farm pivoted online with Barn2Door that they re-started their CSA program, converting to a CSA Subscription model. “With an online store, it’s easier to manage and sell through rolling Subscriptions, so our customers can join anytime. We offer different bundles, including a Salad Lovers and a Microgreen bundle. I send our subscribers an email to inform them of what we’re including in the box each week, giving them time to purchase add-on products. I offer 10% off all other items as a way to incentivize additional purchases.”
By pivoting to a Farmer’s Choice Subscription model, Farmers reduce errors, lower operating costs, and move more products, giving customers what’s currently fresh at the time of fulfillment. With this model, Camille unintentionally created their most popular microgreen blend. “We always had leftover pea shoots and micro radish, so we decided to blend them together into what we call our Farmer’s Favorite Micro Salad Blend. Our customers reacted so well to that blend that it's become one of our most popular items! Something that was meant to move more inventory has become a staple in our store.”
Streamlining their CSA into a rolling Subscription model has been a game-changer for Camille. Removing the extra steps and time it takes to cater to customized orders has helped Little River Farm streamline their process and conveniently cater to buyers’ needs. “With flexible options like pay upfront, pay-as-you-go, and buyer-skip, we can provide customizations without our team going crazy managing the details! Subscriptions guarantee revenue for us, which is extremely helpful for our business.”
The Importance of Unique Products and Streamlined Packaging Sizes
Operating for five full seasons, Little River has found its niche in the market to cater to Buyers’ expectations. Doing so has created a loyal customer base and a unique product offering that distinguishes the Little River Farms Brand from others. “Every year, we found that we never had enough greens to keep up with demand! When we recognized the opportunity, we decided to devote ourselves to planting more beds and expanding our greens while eliminating other crops that took up space.
We recognize that we’re not a Farm for everyone, and that’s okay. Our customers really appreciate us. We recognize the demand for greens, microgreens, and herbs, so we’ve shifted to growing more in high tunnels and expanding our season through the winter and early spring to cater to what they want!”
While they’ve found their niche in the market, Camille also shared the importance of packaging products to fit various customers’ preferences. “Some customers were buying our two-ounce bags while others gravitated towards the six-ounce bags of microgreens. To experiment, I decided to offer a one-pound bag and paired it with a discount telling people that they’ll save money and plastic! Our customers reacted well to it, so we want to focus on expanding more bulk options.”
Offering various packaging options is important to catering to different buyer preferences and aligning products to average household sizes (⅓ of Americans live alone, ⅓ live with 2-3 people, and ⅓ live in groups of 4+ people).
Read: 5 Ways Microgreen Farmers Can Improve Their Operating Margins
Read: 3 Ways to Streamline your Microgreen Business (and Scale Operations)
How Expectations of Convenience is Met with a Direct Delivery Service
For Little River Farm, the need to offer customers the convenience of accessing their products is extremely important. Camille knew that to scale operations and expand their customer base, a delivery service was the key. “With our delivery, we’re servicing customers we never met at the markets. Our markets are open 3-4 hours a week during specific times. Even though buying local food is important to our customers, their lives are busy, so getting to the markets is hard for them.
When we realized that there are people who want our products and prefer to buy locally, but there’s not a convenient way to do it, we started our delivery program. We began with two days a week, and now we’re adding a third day. When we saw people were using the service, we steadily expanded our offering, and more customers signed up. We’re now moving away from the markets and are putting our energy into expanding delivery!”
Using Barn2Door to communicate with customers and inform them of delivery information has made it easy to expand their program and drive more orders. “Using Barn2Door’s automatic order reminders has been extremely helpful in fueling additional delivery sales. For example, I send a reminder 12 hours before our delivery cut-off, and sales increased immediately!” Leveraging order reminders and the concept of FOMO (the fear of missing out) has allowed Little River Farms to scale delivery operations and serve more customers with convenience.
What’s Next for Little River Farm
Little River is focused on expanding how much product they can produce! Growing in tunnels and with a nursery, they hope to connect their community to their land through on-Farm events and expand their reach.
We’re proud to support Farmers like Camille and everyone at Little River Farm who is dedicated to offering convenient fulfillment options to feed their local community.
Barn2Door provides an all-in-one solution for Farmers to grow and manage their business. If you’re curious to learn why successful Farmers run on Barn2Door, watch this 5-minute video.