WFM2Go is an extension of the beloved Wolfville Farmers’ Market in Nova Scotia. A couple years ago, Wolfville Farmers’ Market decided they wanted an online ordering presence, so they formed WFM2Go and launched using Local Food Marketplace’s software. What follows has been a real success story, and Wolfville Farmers’ Market found themselves in a great position to take on the new challenges presented by the onset of COVID-19. We got to speak with Lindsay, the manager at WFM2Go, to learn more.

 

LFM: Hi Lindsay! So for those of us that are unfamiliar with WFM2Go, could you give me a little background?

Lindsay: WFM2Go is our online store, but it’s part of our farmers’ market which started in 1992 in a parking lot with three vendors and has grown into a 2-day-a-week market, plus two online deliveries a week.

LFM: What was the thought process behind creating the online market, and why did you choose the LFM software?

Lindsay: Well, six to seven years ago, the board and our vendors started to notice that sales were plateauing – I mean, you can only fit so many people in the market, you can only sell so much in that amount of time. We were trying to figure out how to increase the sales, but in a way that the vendors could grow together. There’s not a lot of middle ground – there’s farmers markets, roadside stands, and whatnot…and then there’s large scale grocery stores. There aren’t a lot of scaling options for businesses in between. A farmer can’t start at 1 and then all of a sudden be ready for a grocery store. That’s not how you grow a business. We tried an app where people could build their grocery list ahead of time, and when more growth was needed, we started doing a lot of research into many different platforms. A grid of pros and cons of each platform was developed, and we ended up choosing LFM.

We’re all about personal connection, and connecting over food. And LFM felt like one of us! LFM isn’t this huge corporation where I’m calling this 1-800 number…I just call Amy! I can just email and ask questions and …we just love working with you guys.

LFM: How has using LFM software impacted your admin process?

Lindsay: I often think about how much our workload would increase without LFM. I know some of the folks here in Nova Scotia that are using LFM and we’re all so grateful. I know some markets that are trying to sell online Google sheets or spreadsheets and I’m like…holy moly, I can’t….like, kudos to you for making that work but I can’t imagine it. I can’t imagine orders coming through on an excel sheet, tallying them up, charging customers, figuring out how much they owe and making sure the vendors know what they need to bring in…it’s all too much. With LFM, all of those pieces happen automatically – I don’t even have to worry about it.

LFM: What was it like for your vendors when you made the transition?

Lindsay: Well, at first they were pretty nervous. In Nova Scotia; we’re rural, but we’re considered a good size market – and a lot of our vendors’ income is through the market. But a lot of them were eager to scale up. In the beginning, 35 vendors were participating and now we have 55. So, a bunch more have joined. We’ve found the quickest way to get vendors using the system is to hold a webinar once every two weeks where I take them through the whole process. And at this point, it feels like we’ve done a year’s worth of work in  only a few months! And now, our primary producers are doing as well or better than before this.

LFM: How about your customer base – how did they react to the new system?

Lindsay: It was slow to start, to be honest – ordering produce online can be a weird concept to some people. I describe it as…you know when people started using their credit cards online? That’s kind of the attitude towards buying your produce online. It was slower to start, but we’ve now opened our base to people who used to go to the market but couldn’t make it anymore, or people that are older, or people that still go but wanted the mid-week top up that the online store can offer.

LFM: How has the process changed since COVID-19 closure orders?

Lindsay: I now refer to it as “three years of practice” with LFM. In the year previous to the shutdown, February 2019 to February 2020, we were averaging around 58 orders a week. Towards February of this year we were hitting more like 70 or 75 orders a week. And previously, the most we’d ever done in a day was 95. Now, this past Wednesday we did 317 orders and we’re doing it twice a week. And we pack that and deliver it all in the same day.

LFM: Are there any particular features of the LFM platform that you guys find the most useful?

Lindsay: We do CSA boxes – that’s really helpful. We have a farmer that does a CSA on their own, but they couldn’t continue it through the winter. So, we took on delivery of their CSA during the summer, and to keep those CSA customers during the winter we do a winter CSA where we just build the box ourselves. Then, in July, that farmers’ original CSA will start back up again.

Honestly, there’s so many features that we use, but there’s always so many things that I didn’t even realize it could do… like I’ll email support and say “Hey, I have this huge problem” and Nick will be say “Oh, just do this!” and it’s solved! It’s a huge part of why we love working with you guys.