A major part of selling direct-to-customer is creating fulfillment strategies for your products. With Local Line, the leading local food sales platform, you can create unlimited fulfillment options for both pickup and delivery.
If it’s your first time selling direct-to-customer, choosing the right structure for your pickup & delivery plans can feel like a shot in the dark. It can be difficult to know up front how you need to design each plan to ensure you're not going to lose money driving your products all around your area.
You might have questions such as:
How many different delivery plans should I offer?
How should I set up a recurring schedule, or only deliver as needed?
What should my pick up or delivery fee be?
Should I set an order minimum for free pick up or delivery?
We looked at the most common fulfillment settings on Local Line and isolated what the most successful farms and food hubs were doing. This article explores the results, discusses the pros and cons of pick up versus delivery and hopefully, will help you construct a profitable fulfillment strategy for your business.
Key Takeaways
Pick up locations are 3x more popular than delivery plans, which makes sense! If you can organize an aggregate drop at a designated pickup location, you'll save yourself time and money compared to home delivery.
Delivery is more convenient for customers and can help differentiate you from the competition; however, it is more expensive, can be complex, and has a higher barrier to entry.
On average, Farms have 7 pick up plans and offer 6 pick up days per month. The average pick up fee on Local Line is $3.50, but 77% of users do not have a pick up fee. The average order minimum to qualify for free pick up on Local Line is $27.50.
Farms usually have 5 delivery plans and offer 6 delivery days per month. The average delivery fee on Local Line is $9.00, and 64% of users include a delivery fee. The average order minimum to qualify for free delivery on Local Line is $62.00.
Which fulfillment plan type is more popular?
Before we discuss delivery vs. pick up, we wanted to answer a simple question: Which is being used more frequently on Local Line? The results showed that orders on Local Line were 3x more likely to have pick up versus delivery. The main reason? For many farmers, pick up is much more cost-effective than delivery. You can serve many more customers at once, combine it with the farmers’ market or other existing commitments, or reach a broader region with less effort.
Delivery and pick up offer different benefits and disadvantages for farmers, food hubs, and their customers.
Average number of fulfillment plans
How many fulfillment options should you offer your customers? The answer is that it depends on your capacity. How many delivery locations can you profitably service? How many pick up locations fit into your schedule? As a guideline, we found that, on average, high-volume farms have 7 pickup locations and 5 delivery plans, and typically have a weekly option available for each.
To help define your fulfillment strategy, here are a few helpful articles:
When creating your pick up location inside Local Line, you have a few settings to choose from:
Pick up availability: Scheduled pick up allows you to define dates, date ranges, order cutoff times, and time slots for pick ups. Flexible pick up allows you to give your customers an estimate of when their items will be ready and instructions for picking up their orders.
Pick up schedule: If you offer scheduled pick up, you can select a recurring schedule (i.e. repeats weekly or monthly) or custom dates (select individual dates on a calendar).
Order lead time: The number of days and the cutoff time you need to prepare an order for this pick up location.
Pick up fees: Add a fee for pick up to your orders.
Minimum order to qualify for free pick up: Set an order minimum amount for free pick up.
Popular pick up location settings
We looked at the most popular inputs for pick up settings inside Local Line. Here they are:
Pick up availability: The vast majority of Local Line users create a scheduled pick up plan rather than a flexible plan. Scheduled fulfillment gives your customers a sense of predictability and is a recommended storefront best practice.
Number of pick up days: On average, users have 6 pickup days per month.
Order lead time: The average order lead time for pick up is 2.5 days (60 hours).
Pick up fee:77% of users opt not to include a pick up fee. The average pick up fee used on Local Line is $3.50.
Minimum order to qualify for free pick up: The average order minimum to qualify for free pick up on Local Line is $27.50.
What should my delivery plan settings be?
How to create a new delivery plan
When creating your delivery plans inside Local Line, you have a few settings to choose from:
Delivery zone: You can define your delivery zone using locations, zip codes, or a radius.
Delivery schedule type: Scheduled delivery allows you to define a recurring delivery schedule, custom delivery date, and order delivery cutoff times. Flexible delivery gives your customers an estimate of when their items will be delivered and custom instructions.
Delivery fees: Add a fee for delivery.
Minimum order to qualify for free delivery: Set an order minimum amount for free delivery.
Popular delivery plan settings
We looked at the most popular inputs for delivery settings inside Local Line. Here they are:
Delivery zone: Most users on Local Line set their delivery zone by region (city, province/state, or country). The least popular option is by postal or zip code.
Number of delivery days: On average, users have 6 delivery days per month.
Order lead time: The average order lead time for delivery is 3 days.
Delivery fees: 64% of users opt to use a delivery fee. The average delivery fee on Local Line is $9.00.
Minimum order to qualify for free delivery: The average minimum order for free delivery on Local Line is $62.00.
If you're just starting with direct fulfillment, you can use these stats as a guideline! That said, it's important to always do a bottoms up cost analysis for each fulfillment plan to ensure you're at least able to break even. Take into account vehicle costs, employee time on the road, and order packing. The way you start will likely not be where you end -- it's a process that gets refined every year as you add customers and expand your business.
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Farms that use Local Line grow sales by 23% per year! Find out how
Nina Galle is the co-author of Ready Farmer One. She continues to arm farmers with the tools, knowledge, and community they need to sell online at Local Line.
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