Farmer to Fridge is both an online marketplace, and a fully featured ecommerce solution for your farm. If you’re ready to sell direct to the public, then we can help drive sales, get your products online, and handle payments, cut sheets and more.
Ultimately this will be a business decision for your farm, this is a bit more work than just having the stock agent come with a truck and write you a cheque!
However, by selling directly to the public, and owning more of the “value adding” process, you’re able to earn more for your meat!
Cattle and Sheep prices are historically high at the moment, and we respect that in this environment it may not be “worth it” for some farmers at the moment. However, prices will inevitably fall at the sale yards, while supermarket prices remain strong.
By selling direct your farm is buffered from these weekly local and global shifts in demand. Farmer To Fridge also enables your farm to build a loyal customer base, who buy into the value proposition of your farm. Typically these customers are less price sensitive and are keen to support local businesses beyond a $/kg price.
Our mission is to build an Australia Wide marketplace of hungry consumers, educated on the benefits and process of buying meat direct from the farmer.Â
You bring the cows (or sheep, pigs, goats, etc) and we bring the customers!
Farmer to Fridge will
At this stage, Farmer to Fridge is primarily a sales and marketing platform.
Register before the launch of V2 (coming late 2023) to “lock in” our current service fee and other exclusive first farmer benefits.Â
While our current website is … alright. Our new platform has been literally built from scratch.Â
We’ve taken all our learnings from the last 12 months, all the feedback from customers, farmers and butchers.Â
We’ve used this information to help solve problems, make updating customers easier, and give more control over how you sell.Â
More than a sales platform.Â
We’re building in the ability for farmers to connect directly with butchers and refrigerated couriers right though the platform.
This means no more ‘rining around’ or updating cut sheets. It’s all done right through the app.Â
Build your Farmer to Fridge brand in minutes!
A core element in V2 is our system that connects your farm, product and butcher in one direct chain.
This allows for greater range cut up options without the need to add multiple products.Â
The system will help “nudge’ customers to order larger ‘quantity’ in order to ‘unlock’ more cut options.Â
These are set by YOUR butcher and update instantly!
No farms are created equal.Â
In V2 we’re letting farms really tell their story. We are also giving the website a complete visual overhaul. So your farm profile will also LOOK nice!
We will also be offering the chane for farmers to showcase external certifications and awards, plus exploring the possibility of “small farm” focused certifications.Â
Quite a bit of the current website relies on humans to push a button.
In V2 we’re working on automating the farmer payment and customer credit systems so you’ll get paid faster, and with greater accuracy.Â
Third party invoices such as butcher prep work can also be generated by our system.Â
Another “core” element of V2 is the Order Window and the Delivery Window.Â
Farms will be able to quickly and easily communicate to customers when they will have products for purchase, and also when those products will be ready for delivery.
So if you’re selling 10 sheep a year, or 100 a week your sales setup should be painless.Â
Â
We’re exploring a number of selling options for farms. Giving the customers more “ways” to pay for a product will help the farms sell more meat!
We are planning for a range of options such as “pre-pay”, Subscription and potentially an “after pay” style option as well.Â
Â
Customer communication is key to a happy platform.
We’re building a live chat function into V2, plus a dedicated messaging center which will allow you to “group” orders together and message multiple customers at the same time.
So if you’ve sold a cow as 1/8th’s and have to update 16 people, you can do this quickly and easily.Â
Plus if a customer has a quick pre purchase question you can jump on and close the deal!
Farmer to Fridge gives each farmer their own online store, so they can sell their own products to their own clients.
Your customers can browse products, purchase, follow your store and more!
Our site is custom built to help farmers easily sell an entire cow, whether you want to sell 1/8th, 1/4, 1/2 or even a whole cow us up to you.
Our platform co-ordinates all the parties so you don't have to worry!
There's nothing more frustrating than chasing people to pay. With Farmer to Fridge your customers pay upfront before an order is placed.
No more cold feet at the last moment. Once the order is in, you're good to go!
Whether you sell cows, sheep, pigs, deer... or almost any other animal. Farmer to Fridge is your online Farmer to Consumer marketplace. Every farmer has a different story to tell, and a different approach to their farm. Now's your chance to connect with local customers who value your unique approach.
Set your own prices for your own meat!
Break free of the sale yard system.
With Farmer to Fridge, your customers pay the price you want! You can also offer payment plans and deposit options through our platform.
Set your own prices for your own meat! Use our free online tools to help price your products and keep more money in your pocket.
We’re working hard to become a household name for connecting farmers to customers. We run local radio, facebook and other marketing campaigns to grow our platform and drive sales.Â
We’ve had over 21,000 hits to our page in Jan 2023!
You won’t be stuck on the phone talking to clients. Our easy to use online system deals with payments, online cut sheets (with pictures) and pickup/delivery options.
These can be customized to your existing butcher.
From a private online processor directory, to Australian based website support. We’re here to support farmers for the long term.
We help farmers build their supply chains so they can provide top quality products direct to clients near and far.
This method of selling direct won’t work for every farm. We’re very open and transparent about that.Â
We will strive to work with any farm of any size, but we’d like everybody to go into this knowning all the facts.
General disclaimer, please do not consider this financial advice and always seek your own advice specific to your situation before making any decisions.
The direct cost to the the platform is currently 3.5% of sales, plus a 2% credit card/payment gateway fee.
There are other indirect costs which you should consider. These may or may not apply to your farm.Â
While there is always risk in conducting a business, there may be specific risks associated with selling online, and direct to the public
General disclaimer, please do not consider this financial advice and always seek your own advice specific to your situation before making any decisions.
In a sense, this is up to you, via our platform, most farmers sell by “dressed weight” at a flat $/kg price. Other farms have put together “product boxes” and have come up with their own pricing around them.
Your price should cover all your direct costs including processing, butchering and transport to the abattoir and butcher.Â
Typically, as of 17/9/2022 beef is selling to the customer at $15/kg for “grass fed” beef, however this depends a lot on the farm and their location.
We’ve build Farmer to Fridge from the ground up to help farmers build their online brands. In our short history we’ve already helped farms in SA, NSW and Victoria sell thousands of dollars worth of meat.
We’re currently building our second version of the Farmer to Fridge platform, due for completion late 2023 which will expand the free tools and functionality given to farmers so it will be easier than ever to launch your farm online and start getting sales.
This platform will represent thousands of hours of testing, customer feedback and farmer feedback, as well as a significant investment of over $300,000!
We want our marketplace to be the #1 destination in Australia and beyond, for customers everywhere to buy local meat from their local farmer!
Call James, the founder/director onÂ
0458 343 379Â
9:00am – 9:00pm for any farmer or setup related questions.Â
