Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
When will they come, what will be the weekday versus weekend traffic
and what would they most likely want to buy?
The more information you can find out about the potential consumer the
more the store design can be planned to be attractive to them.
The closer to a large urban community the more sales per square
metre or foot and larger the farm shop can be. Alas, it is difficult to obtain
up-to-date research on demographics but in a survey in Ohio in 1994 and
reported in HobbyFarms.com,
3
20% of households with an income of less
than US$25,000 would spend less than
15
min travelling to a farm shop. Of
those with an income of US$25,000-
35,000
53% would travel that distance.
Of respondents with an income above $35,000 70% were willing to travel the
15
min. Although the salary brackets have changed since 1994, the overall
thinking process has not changed; the more affluent the consumer the more
likely they are to want to travel to a farm shop.
In Ontario, Canada the report by Experience Renewal Solutions Inc.
22
revealed that 66% of farm shop visitors are female and two-thirds of shop-
pers are between the ages of
25
and
49,
which reflects the 'family appeal'
of farm shops. Of these shoppers, 14% go on their own to the farm shop
in Ontario, 11% with friends, 21% as a couple and 50% as a family unit.
Although Ontario has a multicultural society, 89% of farm shoppers are
Caucasian, the remainder being 5% Asian, 2% Hispanic, 2% East Indian, 1%
African Canadian, 1% Arabic and 0.3% Aboriginal/Native. All the visitors
travelled by car to get to the farm shop. Coach tourism seems not to have
discovered farm shops in Canada although this is starting to be a factor in
some UK farm-shop locations.
In retailing it is accepted that
35-
year-old women are the biggest
spenders and the ideal shopping unit is two
35-
year-old women shop-
ping together. In our experience this approach still works in farm-shop
retailing.
The survey by Jankowski and Meloche
2
also revealed shopper frequency:
•
26% of shoppers return within
2
weeks;
•
14% of shoppers return within 1 month;
•
12% of shoppers come back later in the year;
•
40% of shoppers come back the next year;
•
0% never shop at the farm shop again;
•
8% of shoppers were unsure when they would return.
This is a high return rate and ensures that even though the industry is
often seasonal this can be developed as an advantage and opportunity. Of the
shoppers, 92% planned a purchase before they visited a farm shop. Out of the
8% who did not purchase on that visit 71% were planning just to browse and
not purchase a product.
Today's retail shopper and hence farm-shop consumer can, according to
Sue Allan of the Australian Retail Association,
4
be divided into one of four
groups. Each of the groups must be communicated with appropriately.
The four groups are: Fast and Logical, Fast and Emotional, Slow and
Logical and Emotional and Slow.
