By Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator
The full Farm2Door team
You’ve got to love a Business Ally that uses the words “farm” and “farmers” as proper nouns.
Barn2Door provides farmers with the marketing tools they need to succeed in today’s online world. By creating e-commerce and mobile apps that prioritize farmers’ unique needs, local chefs and consumers have increased access to food grown right in their communities.
We are so pleased to welcome this hardworking team into the CNG Business Ally community! Read on to see why see why farms become Farms in Barn2Door’s book.
Are you interested in featuring your like-minded company on our blog?
Certified Naturally Grown (CNG): How did Barn2Door get started?
Rachel Aylward, Barn2Door Marketing Content Manager (RA): The idea for Barn2Door came about when our Founder, Janelle Maiocco, was at the grocery store and saw local peaches for sale. She recognized the name of the Farm, and she knew that Farmer was giving up a sizable cut of their profits in order to be sold in that store—there had to be a better way. That lightbulb moment set in motion a cascade of research that motivated Janelle to work tirelessly, leaning on her 20+ years experience in food and tech, to develop and deliver the solutions needed to help sustainable Farmers succeed in their local markets, own their profits, and therein disrupt the traditional food distribution and supply model.
We live in a digital age where the average adult now spends in excess of 6 hours online everyday. And while 99% of Americans do not regularly attend a Farmers Market—we can help Farmers access more local customers online.
CNG: What are Barn2Door’s core values?
RA: Thanks for asking! Our core values are super important to us at Barn2Door. We review them regularly and highlight a core value every week with our team.
- Humble: It’s never about us—it’s about the Farmer. We work behind the scenes to power Farmers online.
- Hungry: We are hungry to build software that will save Farmers time and make more money.
- Hardy: We persevere on a daily basis to help Farmers succeed online.
- Humor: We love working together to move mountains (or manure piles?).
- Helpful: We continually ask ourselves and our Farmers, “what more can we do to help?” We offer ongoing support to power each Farmers’ success.
- Heart: We are guided by our belief in a better world. Above all, we are here because we care about Farmers, the food system and our planet.
CNG: How did you make the decision to support CNG as a Business Ally?
RA: We work with a number of CNG Farms across the country.
We are proud to be a CNG Business Ally, to support Farmers who are ensuring the future of sustainable agriculture and good, nutrient-rich food! It was an easy choice for us. We look forward to continuing to support CNG as a Business Ally long term.
CNG: How does Certified Naturally Grown support Barn2Door’s customers?
RA: We trust and respect the work CNG Farmers are doing, and recognize that many Farms are benefiting from your resources even before earning certification. We hope to work with more CNG Farmers and support the great work they are doing. Because CNG helps Farmers become better stewards of the land, we see CNG as not only supporting Barn2Door customers, but also as supporting our global community.
CNG: What are some exciting developments at Barn2Door our CNG community can look forward to in the future?
RA: Recently, we debuted three (3) new capabilities that provide immediate value for all CNG members:
- “Smart Schedules” makes it easier for Farmers to manage pickups, drop offs and deliveries. This saves Farmers hours every week versus endless text messages, emails, Facebook messages and voicemails to arrange the details.
- “Buyer Covers Fees” enables buyers to voluntarily opt-in to pay credit card fees on behalf of CNG Farmers. This can result in huge cost-savings for CNG Farmers—reducing their overall effective credit card rates substantially.
- A new integration with Mailchimp. Now, whenever your customers make a purchase through your online store, you can easily “sync” your contacts with Mailchimp to make email marketing easy and seamless.
It is important to note, that Barn2Door’s efforts are focused 100% on helping Farmers succeed. We want CNG community feedback and are always developing new capabilities tailored to meet the needs of Farmers.
CNG: If you had a magic agricultural wand, how would you use it to improve farm systems in America?
RA: We would equip EVERY sustainable Farmer in the country with the tools to sell to everyone in their local communities! By doing that, we would help Farmers be convenient to shop from. This is exactly what we are working toward here at Barn2Door. We want people to know their local Farmers like they know their dentist, or their mailperson. We work every day to put the power back into the hands of Farmers, to cut out the middlemen—which cuts into Farmers’ profits—and, to help Farmers sell more food, more often. We believe fully that the extraordinary work sustainable Farmers are doing will heal our world and our communities. Our small part in that is to equip small Farms with the technology that will help them win.
CNG: Is there anything else CNG farmers and beekeepers should know?
RA: Our team speaks with Farmers on the phone every single day about their Farm business plans and how they can increase orders and save time by accessing more local customers online. Net net: we help with sales, marketing, orders, online channels and managing logistics. We welcome speaking with any CNG Farmer who wants to learn more—just request a quick demo with a Barn2Door team member. If we don’t hear from you, I will take this moment to say: thank you for all the hard work you do!
…are you interested in featuring your like-minded company on our blog?