Roots
Food-commerce business is challenging and this challenge constantly reminds us of why we started Farmula. One thing we understand is cumbersome solutions which are not marginally better than existing practice would die, maybe not on arrival but eventually.
It is our belief that technology-supported infrastructure is the solution to most of the challenges faced. And this is why Farmula is building out infrastructure and tech. Our tech is our core, a platform that understands customer activities and is, on one hand, able to inform our development process at a general scale and on another hand, inform our operations on a modular level.
The business of perishables comes with certainties; if you stack up and don’t sell, you’ll experience losses, then you bundle this with COVID-19 which has characterized most of the end of the first quarter for businesses.
One big question for business owners is how they can automate repetitive tasks such as going to the market? Going to the market for them is the literal explanation of “early birds catch worms”. Business owners have to struggle between waking up very early, commuting to the market and struggling to make it back early enough to start business, with more load than they left.
For some, they do this everyday.
Of 60 businesses we onboarded in Lagos, only 1 wanted to keep going to the market to source for produce.
Now, no one can go to the market
One thing that has become more glaring, with the current climate, the need for more remote operations is growing. How do food sellers who physically negotiate for quality and best bargains manage when they can't go to their regular open-air markets, how do they sell?
And this is where Farmula steps in with our platform and distribution system
- Firstly, balancing supply and demand is the core of this business. Buy too much, you lose to spoilage, buy too little, you lose out on demand. The Farmula dashboard shifts the orientation form supply to demand. We are able to feed off the data each distro has to automate their supplies. Distro managers only need to approve their shipments which are automatically generated based on their sales.
- Our Point System has built loyalty for our customers. With this, they are able to make purchases based on points they accumulate over time and for businesses, it’s significantly easier to rack up points.
- Or the Price locking feature which enables customers to withstand shock based on the price fluctuation of produce. Our dashboard automates messages to all clients to inform them of our sourcing periods and prices at which they can lock their purchases.
- One big problem existing food sellers face is Bookkeeping. The Farmula platform has been built to do basic financial bookkeeping, recording incomes, expenditures, and profit. What this means is that, without the need for an accompanying software, the farmula dashboard is an all-encompassing tool to ensure each distro achieves financial sustainability fast.
- The statement “You never look for your favorite toothpaste” exemplifies the purpose of an excellent distribution strategy. The general notion is, the most populated areas are best for Situating Distros holds true for fewer distro locations than you’ll think. Our dashboard feeds off key points to give us a range of locations to best situate Farmula distro’s and with this, our last-mile fulfillment costs are for the most part consistent for all customers each distro serves.
Any other interesting features?
- Traceability is a two-way solution for us. Customers consistently inquire, “where are your potatoes coming from?” our solution, a simple scannable QR code that serves as a double-check for customers. Customers can easily interact with the code to access accurate information on where their food came from and when it was harvested. For us, it informs when shipments are fulfilled which is key in managing return orders.
Our platform marginally makes the purchase and sale of fresh food simple by focusing on factors that customers want. Our monitoring is modular and informs peculiar decisions like who to retarget in marketing campaigns, what factors to look out for and, which customer needs a credit facility. The great news is its interoperability for Farmula distro’s and your regular food seller.
In other news,
Our B2C service goes live in Nairobi and Lagos this April. Providing you with access to affordable quality fresh food. Farmula Fresh from Source reiterates the need for fresh produce you can trust. We love that you are increasing your attention to what you consume and we want to be able to adequately satisfy those desires.
With simple WhatsApp messages, you'll be able to place orders
What are you waiting for? Register here today! (Nairobi, Lagos)
Working Safe in this period
We are ensuring the health of everyone involved by working at a very modular level which reduces our need to move. Our movement would be restricted to logistic partners and last-mile staff.
We encourage everyone to stay safe in this period. We believe we will evolve stronger than when all this started.
