Something I’m Thinking About
When Asbury FRESH started back in 2012, while much fewer in numbers, farmers markets and other pop-up events weren’t exactly uncommon.
One of the things that set us apart, though, was our ability to reduce friction for vendors looking to sell at our market.
Farmers markets have never been at the forefront of technology trends. Back in 2012, if they even had a website, it was likely unchanged since its creation in the late 1990s.
I remember early on, researching one of the big competitors in the area.
To register for their market you needed to go to the website of the law firm who “sponsored” it.
Then, you needed to find a buried link on the homepage and sift through eight paragraphs of long text to find a contact number.
After leaving a voicemail, someone might return your call, although they never called me back.
As a vendor, payments involved showing up on the day of the market with $20 cash and handing it to a market manager.
We may have been new to the space, but needless to say, I saw an opportunity here to reduce friction and create a better customer experience.
The first thing I did was take a bunch of nice photos from other markets I had traveled to and designed a very basic yet pretty website.
I added a minimal contact form to simplify the lead generation and sign-up processes. These leads were then added to a mailing list for future follow up.
I added a Google Voice phone number and, when someone called, I either picked up the phone or returned their call within 24 hours.
Finally, I added the ability for vendors to pay their invoices online.
This helped out with planning and operations but also made sure any vendor table fees went back into the operations and not someone’s pocket.
The system wasn't perfect, but it was unique at the time and helped us quickly establish a loyal local customer base.
Seeing this early success we leveraged my background in software engineering and went all in on developing our own booking and CRM system.
As we have grown, this platform has allowed us to manage the thousands of vendors in our community.
It also gives us a tool to reengage with past customers, communicate faster and provide an all around better customer experience.
In the past few years, we found ourselves needing to reintroduce some friction into our booking process.
We started to observe that new vendors would often submit multiple and frequently incomplete applications. They required several back and forth email exchanges to properly vet.
This led to a bottleneck for our curation team, who pointed out that the review process was becoming increasingly challenging.
To solve this issue, we implemented a small annual registration fee and increased the length of our applications to reduce the need for back and forth.
Since implementing this change at the start of last year, we expectedly saw a 21.5% decrease in total applications.
However, our application approval rate only decreased by 6.2% while our rejection rate dropped significantly by 32.3%. At the same time, our average booking value rose by 14.5%, and our average customer spend saw a modest increase of 4%.
As we grow and evolve, we continue to explore new ways to reduce friction, improve the experience for our vendors, and streamline our operations.
Over the years, we've added several tools to our platform, including integrated application processing, booking management, individual event landing pages, improved reporting tools, email automations, and SMS messaging.
These features have streamlined our routine communications and back-office administration, enabling us to focus more on building relationships with our vendors and producing better events.
I often reflect in awe on how our small team has transformed a few tents in a park on a lazy Sunday morning into what we've achieved today.
This year, we'll produce over 150 events and manage more than 6000 bookings. I'm excited for what the future holds and eager to continue evolving our processes as we grow.
Something I’m Reading
Poor Charlie’s Almanack
by Charles T. Munger & Peter Kaufman
This Stripe Press reprint of Charlie Munger’s famous talks and lectures was on backorder for several months following his passing. It finally showed up at my door a few weeks ago and it’ve been fun to jump into.
Something I’m Hosting
2024 Offshore Wealth Summit
3 Days of Education, Connection, & Growth for Real Estate Investors
Join the 2024 Offshore Wealth Summit at The Surf Village in Bradley Beach from May 20-22.
This exclusive event is limited to 24 individuals and offers educational sessions, strategic networking, and in-depth learning with industry leaders like MC Laubscher, Dave Van Horn, and Alina Trigub.
The summit is crafted to boost your wealth management skills and connect you with like-minded investors, all in a relaxed setting conducive to deep learning and meaningful interactions.
It's the perfect escape for those eager to advance their knowledge and opportunities in real estate investment and wealth building.
Ready to invest in your future?
See our full agenda for the retreat and secure your spot at
https://www.bradleysurfvillage.com/ows24.
Use the code EARLYBIRD24 to save $100 on your ticket and accommodations (I believe we still have 1 Early Bird ticket left but if they’re sold out please reach out and I can accommodate readers).