3 Growth Levers for Farm-to-Consumer Businesses

In marketing lingo, a growth lever is a strategy a company takes to drive growth — whether that means bringing in new customers, increasing sales, or encouraging more frequent purchases. 

There are hundreds of marketing strategies you could pursue, but not all of them are relevant to farm businesses. Worse, if you focus on the wrong growth levers, you could spread yourself too thin.

In this article, we’ll cover the basics of the three main farm growth levers, plus some practical strategies you can try to move each one. 

Let’s jump in.

Unique Challenges of Farm Businesses

Whether you’re just starting out by attending a farmers market, opening a permanent farm store, or launching a new website, farm stores face some unique challenges compared to other food retailers:

• Highly seasonal: Unlike grocery stores that provide the same products year-round, farm stores have to work seasonally, requiring unique marketing strategies and business models.

• Big competition: Farmers aren’t just competing with other farm stores, but with local grocery stores, big-box stores, online meal kits, and other established brands.

• High overhead: Running a farm store and selling fresh food comes with overhead costs (e.g. food-safe packaging, cold storage) that other businesses don’t have — meaning they typically need to generate higher sales to break even.
• Lack of business experience: Many farmers are experts on sustainable land use, crops, and livestock, not marketing and growth levers. While understandable, this can make it tough for farmers transitioning to direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales.

However, it’s worth noting that many of the aspects that make running farm businesses challenging are also the things that make them special. 

Farm stores that embrace their differences and lean into community engagement through DTC sales can seize exciting opportunities for long-term financial stability and growth. 

3 Main Farm Growth Levers (+ Strategies and Tips)

Generally speaking, there are three main growth levers that affect a farm business. However, which levers you choose to invest in will depend on how established your business is, your strengths and weaknesses, and your goals. 

There’s no one right answer — but by understanding the different ways a farm business can grow, you can focus on the lowest hanging fruit for you (i.e. the items you can do well and can be implemented with the least amount of effort). 

We recommend checking back in with these growth levers at least once a year to evaluate how your business is performing on each lever and where you can try new strategies or make improvements to your existing processes.

Let’s dive in.

Growth Lever #1: Active Customers and Leads

This one may be the most obvious: The more active customers you have, the more revenue you’ll generate. Note that when we say “active customers,” we’re referring to customers who have purchased at your store within the last 12 months.

This first lever focuses primarily on building brand awareness and driving traffic to your business. Attracting new customers is a must for any business, but is especially important if you’re opening a farm store or farm store website for the first time.

Remember: You may be competing with grocery stores, but you won’t be able to beat them at their own game. Focus on what makes you unique, whether it’s increased transparency, higher quality, or a dedication to sustainable farm practices. 

Strategies and Ideas

If you’re looking to increase your number of website or in-store visitors, here are some strategies you can take:

1. Invest in search engine optimization (SEO) for your farm store website. This will help you show up higher in local searches.
2. Encourage existing customers to leave reviews — people are much more willing to take a chance on a business with great reviews!
3. Create an exclusive discount for first-time subscriptions or orders to entice people to take a chance on an order (e.g. “New customers get 20% off their first order by signing up for our newsletter”).
4. Use your social media accounts to drum up interest in your farm and spread brand awareness.
5. Host in-person events like farm tours, cooking classes, or “meet your farmer” experiences that help differentiate you from grocery stores or butchers.

Remember to use the analytics and reports on your e-commerce platform to monitor site traffic, discount performance, and other key metrics — this way, you can set actionable goals.

Growth Lever #2: Average Purchase Rate

Building a base of active customers is only part of the battle. It’s a lot of work to bring in new customers, and all of that work is for nothing if you can’t inspire them to buy from you again. That’s why it’s so important to keep your active customers engaged.

Better yet, returning customers tend to spend more than new customers, making them a vital segment for financial stability and growth.

Strategies and Ideas

Here are some proven customer retention strategies to keep customers coming back for more:

1. Create a customer loyalty program that earns customers points and discounts for repeat purchases.
2. Send out a newsletter to existing customers that includes things like new products, sales announcements, recipe ideas, and exclusive discount codes.
3. Run regular sales and promotions to entice customers to come back and reorder.
4. Offer subscribe and save options to turn a one-time buy into a recurring monthly purchase.
5. Start a refer-a-friend program, offering a discount or freebies to the existing customer for every referral and a discount for the new customer.
6. Use your e-commerce platform to segment customers based on their sales history and send marketing offers tailored to their preferences.

Repeat customers will be the lifeblood of your business, so the happier you can make them, the better.

Growth Lever #3: Average Order Size

In our opinion, average order size is the growth lever that’s overlooked the most — luckily, it’s one of the easiest to improve. Encouraging customers to buy more with each order is better for revenue and operational efficiency, since every order comes with a certain amount of overhead to fulfill.

The goal isn’t simply to get customers to spend more money by raising prices. This lever is primarily focused on upselling opportunities, rethinking product selection, and other similar tactics.

Strategies and Tips

A thoughtful approach to product selection is essential for encouraging customers to spend more. You can:

1. Expand your product selection, especially in areas that grocery stores can’t compete (e.g. seasonal farm-grown produce, specialty meat cuts).
2. Set order minimums for online orders to ensure that you recoup your packaging and shipping costs.
3. Create curated boxes, sampler packs, and unique product bundles. If you have the capacity, curated subscription boxes are a great option.
4. Offer discounts or free shipping on orders over a certain volume to encourage higher spending. 
5. Suggest complementary items on product pages and at checkout to upsell customers (e.g. spice rubs, cooking tools, etc.)

Not sure where to start? Use the reports on your e-commerce platform to see your bestselling items — then you can expand products in those categories first.

Related Read: 3 Proven Farm Promotion Ideas To Increase Your Store’s Sales

How Specialized Technology Helps Your Farm Business Grow

Increasing these growth levers by the same percentage generates the same amount of increased revenue for your business. This means the key is to identify the strategies you think will have the most significant impact for the least amount of effort.

However, it’s hard to impact these growth levers without the right tools. Industry-specific systems like GrazeCart come with specialized tools that will help your farm business grow, including:

• Advanced inventory management including real-time updates, perishable inventory tracking, and more
• Weight-based sales support to sell and track catch weight items
• Unified inventory for both in-store and online sales
• Processing and fulfillment schedule coordination
• Customizable subscription sales with no deposits and location-based rules for online sales
• No-code website builder 
• Reports and analytics to monitor sales performance, inventory data, and more

Ready to grow your farm business? We’re here to help.

Try GrazeCart free for 14 days to see how a system built by farmers for farmers can help take your business to new heights.