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Conference Keynote: Convenience with Karen Huh
274 Plays5 years ago
Hear from former Starbucks executive Karen Huh, why "convenience" means meeting your customers where they're at in her DIRECT 2020 Keynote Session on Convenience.
Show Notes:
-Read more here: https://www.barn2door.com/blog/direct-farm-conference-speaker-karen-huh-chief-executive-officer-at-joywell-foods?__hstc=222833540.27d14b09b2dd22de361d173a26cb9b0e.1633454048048.1634057568637.1634070995079.5&__hssc=222833540.6.1634070995079&__hsfp=122364210
-Watch more here: https://directfarmconference.com/convenience-karen-huh
-https://www.barn2door.com/resources
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Goals
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Direct Farm podcast, the weekly listen for farm selling direct. We'll talk about the four levers for farm success, which are quality, brand, price, and convenience. We'll hear from outside industry experts and producers like you to delight your customers to save time and to increase your direct farm sales and business. We're glad you're here.
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome back everyone.
Recap of Direct 2020 Farm Conference
00:00:26
Speaker
You are listening to the fourth and final week of our four week recap from the direct 2020 farm conference that happened on August 4th. It is almost mid September and thus far we've heard the quality keynote from Paul Dorrance. We've talked about brand with Nona Jones and last week we covered price with Paul Grieve.
Keynote by Karen Ha on Convenience
00:00:47
Speaker
This week we're going to hear the keynote on convenience and our keynote speaker was Karen Ha
00:00:52
Speaker
She is a former executive at Starbucks and the current CEO of Joywell Foods. She shared her experience in the consumer packaged goods and food and beverage industry and the role that convenience plays in really meeting customers where they're at and ultimately growing a business. Here's Karen's keynote. We hope you enjoy. It's entitled Leveraging Convenience to Increase Sales.
00:01:17
Speaker
Hi, my name is Karen Ha, and I'm excited to talk to you about the concept of convenience and why convenience matters for building the customer experience. Now, a little bit about me before we get into it. I live in Seattle. I've been here for about 20 years. I moved here in 2001. Prior to that, I was living in New York City where I'm from.
00:01:40
Speaker
At a college, my first job or nearly my first job was in venture capital. I was looking at a wide array of technology companies that frankly I didn't quite understand. But they're very early stage technology companies and I learned a lot about general business and what it takes to succeed.
00:01:59
Speaker
After that, I went to a coffee company that's fairly well known. You might know it as Starbucks Coffee Company. I joined in 2005, and that is where I got my real start in marketing. I got to touch a wide array of brands, including the ones that Starbucks acquired. So everything from Seattle's Best Coffee, to Evolution Fresh, the juice brand, to Tivana, the tea brand.
00:02:24
Speaker
and had the pleasure of getting exposed to how we build products from the inside and also how we talk to the consumer and how the brand, the Starbucks brand connects to the consumer and how does that magic happen when it's done well.
00:02:42
Speaker
After that, I joined a company called Bulletproof. Bulletproof is a Better For You brand in the consumer packaged goods base, selling a wide array of products from protein bars to coffee to MCT oil supplements. And I was there for four years scaling a team of 29 to about over 200 people and really learning a lot about leadership,
00:03:08
Speaker
building teams, moving fast, and I also learned a lot about what I shouldn't be doing and how to do things better.
Understanding & Reducing Consumer Friction
00:03:17
Speaker
Currently, I am the CEO of a company called Joywell Foods. It is a food technology company based in Davis. So now let's get into it. What is convenience? Convenience is all about meeting consumers where they're at.
00:03:33
Speaker
And what does this mean? It really means about thinking about what their purchasing behaviors are, such as are they using a credit card? Are they paying cash? Are they using checks? And it's also thinking about how they transact, not only the method, such as cash or credit card, but how they like to shop
00:03:54
Speaker
Is it with their phone? Do they like to shop in person? Are they going to the store? Are they using Instacart, a grocery delivery service? And the reason why this is particularly important now is because of COVID and how people are shopping and managing their day-to-day
00:04:13
Speaker
behaviors has fundamentally changed, has changed in a very short period of time. And while some things are still true, some people still go to the store, people still need their necessities, while that all might be the case, the reality is everyone is approaching that very differently. We all know that in the world of e-commerce, that e-commerce sales is just exploding.
00:04:37
Speaker
mobile phone sales made by mobile phone is also exploding. The use of cash is rapidly declining. It was already declining, but it's now declining even more because people are worried about exchanging germs via cash. And these are all very important variables and how to synthesize what convenience means to the consumer.
00:05:03
Speaker
and also what it means to improve consumer experience in the context of your own business. And one way to think about how to improve consumer experience is about thinking about what do you think creates friction when you work with a potential customer or shopper that might be on your site, that might be in person,
00:05:26
Speaker
And what makes it hard for them to transact with you? Is it the hours that you're open? Is it the fact they can't get a hold of you? Is it the fact that you prefer a check because credit card fees seem really exorbitant? There are many different factors, but all those factors, all those points of friction are areas in which, unfortunately, they create lost opportunities to gain a consumer.
00:05:53
Speaker
And taking a moment to think through, put yourself in the consumer's feet and think about what their experience is, will help you define where it is that you can improve and what makes it difficult for consumers to do business with you today.
00:06:11
Speaker
And there are a lot of major reasons for this. I think the payment method is maybe the most obvious one and easy one to point out. But there could be a lot of little ones, but important ones about the consumer experience that makes it hard to transact. A few examples could be they see something out of stock, but they don't know how to find out when it's back in stock.
00:06:33
Speaker
Another example is the site doesn't work or only certain parts of the site works and they're not sure how to get through to the other side of transact or maybe you only take a certain credit card and you only wanna take MasterCard but they only have a visa and that's difficult too. There are lots of little reasons but the chances are even the little reasons that are hard to articulate in the context of this presentation because they're likely infinite.
00:07:00
Speaker
are become big reasons because anything that prevents the consumer from transacting with you is becomes a big reason because it's lost business. And so I wanted to tell a few stories around
00:07:14
Speaker
my experience at Starbucks and what I observed as points of friction for the consumer there and the most well-known point of friction which is probably still a point of friction frankly even with COVID are lines standing in insane lines to wait for your coffee and if you're an avid coffee drinker and if you rely on coffee as part of your daily routine then you know how annoying it is
00:07:39
Speaker
it is to wait in line, not only because you want your coffee, but you're losing time out of your personal day to get that coffee. And so I have a story around that, which is a little bit of Starbucks lore, but there's a store in Vancouver, downtown Vancouver, that opened some time ago. And the reality is that that was not the real estate that Starbucks wanted.
00:08:04
Speaker
What they realized is that if they wanted to make a play in downtown Vancouver, there was a different location which they ended up taking, but the layout wasn't as ideal, it created long lines, there wasn't much seating space, and street traffic wasn't exactly what they wanted.
00:08:24
Speaker
But they took the space anyway, and as expected, long lines formed, people went there regularly and stood in line. But it's still a point of friction, because at some point, someone, a new customer perhaps, won't stand in line. And eventually, there's another spot across the street, literally, this is across an intersection,
00:08:47
Speaker
that opened up and it was the spot they wanted and they made a bid for that spot and got it and they worked to open another Starbucks cafe and in that cafe there was more space it was centrally located meaning it was right on the corner which the other space wasn't and it allowed for better operational flow and the plan all along was to close the old space
00:09:17
Speaker
and transition to the new space. But with real estate and rent and timing, the reality was they knew that both stores would have to be open for some time and they would have to carry the cost of doing that. So they opened the second space and what they learned is something they didn't expect.
00:09:37
Speaker
which is one space didn't cannibalize or steal the customers from the other space, they effectively doubled their business. And to this day, although I haven't been there in the last year, but to this day,
00:09:53
Speaker
both cafes are open. And what they learned is that the lines were so long and they probably lost so many consumers along the way, opening two spaces created even more revenue generating opportunities. And there was no way for them to measure when they only had the one space with the potential business could be, but when they had the overlapping timing of having two spaces open, they suddenly realized, wow,
00:10:21
Speaker
we can actually have enough foot traffic, enough customers, enough interest to fill these two cafes all day long and be wildly profitable and it's not even remotely cannibalizing the business one from the other.
00:10:38
Speaker
And the real learning there is that there's real opportunity in understanding what is the friction point for your consumer and creating a solve for it. And I know that we're not talking about cafes. It's an applicable example in all aspects of business when you're thinking about what I spent a lot of time thinking about the most in my day to day role, which is the consumer experience.
00:11:03
Speaker
The idea of friction that Karen brings up, and this idea that the more difficult and inconvenient it is to ultimately get your food, the less likely customers are to ultimately purchase, certainly rings true with what we see at Barn to Door as well. In fact, across the country, 9 out of 10 Americans say they would prefer to purchase local food, but 99% of those same Americans are not going to a farmers market on a regular basis.
00:11:29
Speaker
because, as Karen mentioned, there's lines and it takes time out of their day when they could be doing a number of other things. Ultimately, people want to be purchasing local farm food, it just has to be convenient. And so Karen launched into some examples of what opportunities for convenience look like, and I'd encourage you to think about what similar examples this looks like with your own farm and your own farm products.
00:11:54
Speaker
Now, another example that I have from Starbucks is their transition to mobile purchasing.
Adopting Convenience Strategies for Small Businesses
00:12:01
Speaker
And there is a long story around it, but I'll give you the abridged version. But Starbucks took a couple of different shots on goal, including the two-store example I just told, to address the lines in their stores. And the first shot was advanced ordering, because they knew that if there was a method to place an advanced order,
00:12:24
Speaker
that would mitigate the frustration of the Starbucks fans that just want their coffee, they know exactly what they want, and they could walk in the door, pick it up when they've ordered it, and leave.
00:12:36
Speaker
And the way they did this was in the early 2000s is by phone, dial by phone. You had to, it was only a test so it was never rolled out nationwide. But the way it worked is that you had to create an account and it was like a customer service line where you have to dial one for English, two for Spanish.
00:12:55
Speaker
English and Spanish, you were creating your own dialing directory, which was one for a latte, two for Americano, three for an espresso. And you created that. And then you use that system. And didn't matter if you use a mobile phone or landline to order. But what they discovered is that calling ahead, even though that in theory would create
00:13:18
Speaker
convenience for people actually created friction because you know what people don't like setting up having to set up their dial one for latte and dial two for americanos and they don't want to go through a dialing system that invokes memories of very long customer service calls and it also required a fair amount of perceived time and perception is important because even if
00:13:47
Speaker
it doesn't take that much time if you were to put a stopwatch against the entire process. If it's perceived to be a very long time, it is a long time, and consumers definitely felt dialing in number, punching in their various coffee orders, dialing in exactly what time they were gonna pick it up, dialing which store they were gonna pick it up from, was a very arduous process, time-consuming process.
00:14:17
Speaker
And for all those reasons, it failed and it never got rolled out broadly. But over time, Starbucks took advantage of something that they were already doing and they were on the forefront of, which has actually nothing to do with advanced ordering, which is gift cards. Starbucks was actually one of the first brands to come out with gift cards that were reloadable. And that business exploded because who doesn't love the gift of coffee?
00:14:46
Speaker
And it's a really easy giftable item to give someone 5, 10, $20 gift card and have it reload automatically as a method of payment for their daily purchase and also enable other people to reload it as an ongoing gift. And they really capitalize that gift card business.
00:15:07
Speaker
And where it became a very serendipitous opportunity is when the iPhone came out and the Android and other smartphones came out, because what that unlocked was the ability to migrate the gift card concept to the iPhone and to the Starbucks app. And so there are a number of steps along the way, but effectively what Starbucks has done was take their gift card, migrate it to an app,
00:15:35
Speaker
Allow the app to function as a gift card which by the way took out another I don't I think calling it friction might be an overstatement, but another
00:15:46
Speaker
and convenience factor, which is carrying another card in your wallet, you can now move your card to your phone and then pay that way. And what that created was a method of payment that didn't require cash, didn't require a credit card, and just was a seamless
00:16:05
Speaker
easy process and then eventually became linked to a store locator, ordering, placing your order no matter where you are and being able to pick it up. And so basically they merged the gift card concept with advanced ordering with their store locator and created a whole ton of convenience where all your information related to Starbucks is in one place. And of course they had their loyalty program,
00:16:31
Speaker
my Starbucks rewards where you can collect gold stars. They have other promotions around their latest new beverages. And so it became a platform where they could proactively push all this new information to the consumer and have it also be convenient at the same time and not very intrusive. So it's, in my mind, one of those great examples, textbook example of how Starbucks took a shot
00:17:00
Speaker
at trying to create convenience completely failed, in my opinion. But then took those learnings and then took the observations of what they saw consumers were doing. Because as I said before, consumers are about meeting them where they're at. And what Starbucks knew was, OK, they like gift cards. Great. They like reloading them. Oh, now there's iPhone. Now there's the iPhone. And now consumers are getting really used to using apps. And that's not even Starbucks.
00:17:26
Speaker
not even because of Starbucks, but because that was one of the major features of smartphones. And okay, great, now they're really familiar with apps. How can we take advantage of that since they're becoming so familiar? And so they were building and observing upon what was already a trend, a macro trend in the marketplace, which is paying with your phone, using mobile apps,
00:17:49
Speaker
to transact and engage with brands. And I think you'd find in any social circle, you'll have a friend that has a lot of apps on their phone for that very purpose because it's become very easy to interact with the brands you love using apps.
00:18:06
Speaker
So let's talk a little bit more about what improves the consumer experience in the context of something that's more on the playing level of a smaller business and not a giant brand. And to be clear, it's hard to ignore the Amazons and the Starbucks of the world
00:18:27
Speaker
For Starbucks, it's the app example I just talked about, and creating better systems around our lines and drive-throughs. For Amazon, it's also their app, which is completely exploded, and their suggested shopping ideas, shopping history, also the ability to expand their assortment so you can buy more things from them. So they have set a certain stage, and the point I wanna make is that there's a certain expectation set around that.
00:18:55
Speaker
However, that doesn't mean that every small business has to play at that level. And in fact, for a variety of reasons you don't, it does mean that you don't have a complete hall pass of avoiding convenience. You do have to meet convenience at the appropriate level, but know that the big brands are setting the stage of what is the gold standard. And then meeting aspects of that is what really matters.
00:19:22
Speaker
and knowing that the consumers are really adapting to them. And so for smaller businesses, convenience really means playing near or at the level as a direct-to-consumer business, direct-to-consumer being defined as me going direct to a farm to buy my blueberries or my salmon or my oysters and going direct to their website or direct on my phone via an app to transact.
00:19:51
Speaker
And there are plenty of businesses, whether it's consumer packaged goods, I used to be part of one at Bulletproof, whether it's supplements, whether it's fresh foods, everything across the board, every category across the board that I could possibly think of has numerous successful direct-to-consumer businesses.
00:20:11
Speaker
And more than ever, and the thing to keep in mind is that more than ever, consumers are discovering brands in new ways. So if they're not going to Target and if they're not physically going to REI or to Whole Foods, they're learning them through social media and their friends and seeing their social network, what people are buying and asking a lot of questions about it because consumers really like to discover new things.
00:20:38
Speaker
With social media, it's very easy to go down a rabbit hole, learn more. I'll tell you my personal experience. I have a restaurant that I love here in Seattle. And when things shut down in March, they started promoting all the different purveyors they use.
00:20:56
Speaker
for ingredients for meals. So the food service providers that normally don't sell at retail, they were promoting because they didn't want those businesses to suffer. And it was a great discovery for us. And we went, my household went a complete rabbit hole, discovering those brands, not only wanting to support them, but try them, because we couldn't try them in a restaurant anymore. And I don't think I'm a unique case. And I don't think I'm any kind of,
00:21:24
Speaker
unicorn in that regard. I think consumers who are interested in their food and eating better and find a higher quality supply, a diversified supply that's not what you get in the store will seek you out and will transact with you, but it just can't be that difficult and it has to be largely on their terms, which gets back to convenience.
00:21:50
Speaker
And in the context of small business, let's get a little bit more specific. Improving the consumer experience really means that you're not asking them to get really tactical about it, to pick up the phone or transact only on your timeline.
00:22:07
Speaker
Consumers are expecting to operate on their timeline and be able to go to your website when they feel like it, when they have time, because time is more precious than ever. And they're not wanting to be restrained to your timeline. And they want to be able to use their preferred payment method. They don't want to have to mail you a check. And I don't know how prevalent that is, but certainly those are things that
00:22:35
Speaker
you're still pursuing to maintain your business and we highly recommend that you consider other avenues because there are people who don't even write checks anymore and there are people who don't even carry cash and there's a whole population of people and shoppers that you'd be missing who would be very excited to transact with you and get to know you and your story and your brand and what you're all about but won't if there are all these guardrails around how to interact and do business.
00:23:04
Speaker
And granted, this never replaces the joy of a live in-person interaction. However, you could still build meaningful, engaging relationships with customers 24-7 on your site by understanding who's coming back again and again and getting to know them and being thoughtful about their return business as you build your business.
00:23:30
Speaker
So I want to jump in and expand on some of the things that Karen brought up. The first is that customers are increasingly searching out and loyal to brands. They want to identify, have affinity with a certain local brand. We've seen this with coffee and with apparel and certainly with farm food as well.
00:23:48
Speaker
And then also, a lot of the times they're finding those brands on social. I think Karen spoke to this as well, but at Barnetador, we see that 65% of purchases are coming in on social and mobile.
Impact of Social Media & COVID-19 on Consumer Habits
00:24:01
Speaker
So that means someone is discovering your farm on Facebook or Instagram. They're clicking a link to shop and then they're actually learning a little bit more or simply checking out.
00:24:11
Speaker
Finally, I want to address just the opportunity that exists right now. You know, Karen mentioned COVID, but even before then, we've seen the trend for customers to go online to purchase food increasingly rising. And in 2020, we've actually seen that one in three Americans went online to purchase food. So the opportunity is there, the idea of convenience is certainly established, but it is really achievable for your farm to deliver on those things as well. I'll let Karen continue.
00:24:41
Speaker
There's an image of Netflix here in the slide deck. And I thought that would be just another quick story that I can tell, which is you may not know this, and I'm dating myself, but Netflix actually started as a DVD by mail service. And that was a long time ago. And in fact,
00:24:57
Speaker
When I started this presentation, I mentioned I was in venture capital and Netflix was actually one of the companies that my firm looked at and we declined because we thought it was ridiculous that people would send their DVDs back and forth by mail and boy, were we really wrong. And first of all, apparently it's very convenient.
00:25:17
Speaker
for consumers to mail things back and forth when you have the logistics set up to get another DVD really fast. But not only that, Netflix very rapidly evolved their business model to the technology norms that were evolving around that time.
00:25:34
Speaker
Broadband was becoming adopted more, so Wi-Fi, more consumers are consuming content via YouTube, and knowing that people, viewers, TV viewers are becoming more and more interested in different forms of content versus the ones they were seeing on TV regularly, and they fully capitalize on that. So it is another quick example of how
00:25:59
Speaker
convenient they've made it and it's no surprise that they've completely just exploded during the pandemic because they make staying at home and enjoying entertainment so pleasurable and so easy.
Pricing, Packaging & Subscription Models
00:26:13
Speaker
I mean they've made it pleasurable and easy before but they've made it even better now and they even have a Netflix party option where you can watch shows simultaneously with your friends and they've been really smart in the in regards to convenience.
00:26:29
Speaker
So getting into pricing and packaging for a little bit, pricing should be reasonable for consumers and that might be staying obvious, but I would really take a moment to think about what you're offering relative to the marketplace and look at what someone else would pay for the same thing in a grocery store.
00:26:48
Speaker
I would make that a consideration and you do not by no means have to match the price of the grocery store, but it's a consideration that if you're triple the price in the grocery store, you're asking for a lot and maybe that's what it takes to build a business, but just know that that's the case.
00:27:06
Speaker
But the fact that you're in a business where quality is high, where it's agricultural, which means there's a rarity component because it's seasonal, you're driving a different kind of value. And most of all, you're a local business, you're a small business, and that has all the benefits of people wanting to support it. And when you combine all the aspects of quality and
00:27:35
Speaker
and the fact that it's seasonal and fresh combined with being local and small.
00:27:41
Speaker
I think you'll find that consumers who are shopping for great food options are, will be a highly motivated to transact with you. And I, you know, I will speak from a personal perspective. I gave my example earlier. I do everything I can. I think many others are to seek out local sources of food and wine and beverage and even supporting local restaurants that are doing takeout because they're also aware of the impact of large retailers.
00:28:11
Speaker
and this is before the pandemic, are having on small businesses. And so I think there is really a giant positive halo that can be taken advantage of in the most positive way.
00:28:22
Speaker
Getting into packaging a little bit, I know packaging can be difficult when you're a small business. I would focus on what is your bread and butter, what are your marquee products that you're offering to the consumer, and optimize your packaging around those. Number one is maintaining the quality and making sure it makes it to its destination of one piece.
00:28:43
Speaker
We recently received a box of peaches, which were still delicious, but completely crushed. So it's a little bit of a downer when that happens. Make sure your consumers know how to open and store your products properly for maximizing shelf life.
00:28:58
Speaker
And then to the extent that it's possible and not too cost prohibitive, think about the amount of packaging that you're using. I think people who are consumers in this space tend to be very conscious of ecological impact. And so the less plastic you use, the less paper you use, the fewer freezer packs you use, the better it is. I say that, but never at the cost of your quality. Quality always comes first.
00:29:28
Speaker
And because you're an agricultural product, normally I would tell businesses that if you struggle with product availability, you have a giant problem. But in your business, it's actually quite the opposite. In your business, the lack of product availability is a great thing because you're an agricultural product, and that's what people expect. If you're selling peaches in August,
00:29:55
Speaker
And then selling them again in January, something doesn't seem right if someone is really savvy. And so taking advantage of the fear of missing out, wanting to get, consumers wanting to get your hands on the freshest best stuff that you produce is a major advantage that you have. And getting consumers engaged on what your timelines are, when are peak seasons, can just drive a lot of interest. And it's also when you do go out of stock,
00:30:23
Speaker
You can collect email addresses which is great for your email list and when you come back in stock you can inform everybody and create that demand and have that communication around how fast you could go out of stock again. So I want to take a moment to talk about communication. Communication is
00:30:42
Speaker
a very key piece of your consumer engagement, and I want to make sure that I emphasize how important it is. The rule of thumb, really, if I were to be really blunt about it, is if you can't manage it, don't do it. But having said that, there's no hall pass on not engaging your consumer.
00:31:02
Speaker
If you're doing business, consumers have to be able to reach out to you. But what I would encourage all businesses to do is to have a communication plan that you can support, have a plan for how you want to manage consumer inquiries, who's going to do it, if it's probably going to be email or will you take phone calls and have a
00:31:25
Speaker
agreement in your mind about how long you'll allow consumers to wait to get back to you because consumers who have questions and consumers that are engaging with you love to learn more and especially in your business and if the timeline gets too long before you're able to get back to them, that could be a lost customer.
00:31:47
Speaker
And also, the opposite is true. If you're able to engage with them and have a good engagement, even if it's time consuming, you have gained a customer and maybe more because that feedback is very viral. Positive consumer experiences go a long, long way, especially if you have a repeat customer. They will often go to bat for you on social media and someone else posts
00:32:13
Speaker
and negative posts about their experience, you'll find that you'll have fans out there that will have your back before you even have to defend yourself.
00:32:20
Speaker
Here, Karen hits on packaging for convenience, cutting down on the number of packaging materials and pricing things really logically so that it's not difficult for the consumer to figure out how much they're paying for something. The next piece of really packaging for convenience and selling items conveniently is subscriptions. We have mentioned this over and over again, and you will continue to hear about it. But subscriptions let a customer just subscribe to receive the same product that they're going to continue eating
00:32:50
Speaker
that you're going to continue producing to receive over and over without having to go and remember to purchase from you each week. And we've seen subscriptions absolutely blow up. Over 2020, one in four orders has been for a subscription item and the farms that are offering them have 80% revenue certainty month over month on average, which is a huge deal.
00:33:14
Speaker
Think about the convenience for your customer, but also the peace of mind for you. Definitely consider subscriptions to be selling with convenience. I really believe that convenience is the tipping point because consumers with the advances in technology are just going to options that enable them to make purchases, do things on their own timeline, on their own terms when it's convenient to them,
00:33:41
Speaker
whatever is perceived to be convenient to them.
Mobile Devices & Final Takeaways
00:33:45
Speaker
And though we talked about this a bit already, the one thing that's worth highlighting is that mobile purchases have absolutely exploded over the last decade. And it's no coincidence that it's because of the iPhone and the Android. It has just completely changed the landscape of how people transact.
00:34:02
Speaker
because it's easy to transact when you're standing in a line. If you're in gridlock traffic, though you shouldn't be doing that while driving, but it's true, people do it. If you're at a soccer game with your kids and it's halftime, there are just so many reasons why and so many more occasions for consumers
00:34:22
Speaker
to transact via mobile phone in a way that creates more convenience and opportunities than walking to a store, which could be closed for a good chunk of the day, especially these days. And if it's not convenient, the fundamentals are you just don't have a business there and it will have a harder time
00:34:46
Speaker
growing and really I can't pound it in more and emphasize enough. I just can't emphasize enough that the important thing to keep in mind is to not make the consumer work so hard for you and it's easy to get frustrated because of
00:35:03
Speaker
of meeting the consumer's demands, but just remember that meeting their demands and how they operate means more business in the long term and it will get easier over time. It just takes a bit of adaptation.
00:35:34
Speaker
local agriculture, which is clearly not supported enough, but those who are active supporting agriculture are very active and very avid fans of shopping in this general space. To take advantage of it, it's really ripe for the taking, no pun intended.
00:35:37
Speaker
to what consumers are used to these days.
00:35:55
Speaker
So in short, just a few key takeaways. It's about convenience, which is meeting the consumer where they are at. It's about understanding technology, that mobile usage is here to stay, and the consumers clearly have adopted it for their purchase habits. And there is really no going back there.
00:36:15
Speaker
And then speaking of habits, consumers aren't using cash as much. They're not picking up the phone anymore. In fact, it's only declining. They're not writing checks. So don't make them resurrect an old habit because resurrecting an old habit is effectively the opposite of convenience. And enjoy being local and show that with pride.
00:36:38
Speaker
I can't say it enough because I know I've said it a bunch of times in this presentation, but consumers are so excited to support and buy higher quality foods now more than ever. And the only thing that stands in the way is actually doing it with ease. And the brands that can do that the best are the brands that will absolutely shine.
00:37:00
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening to this presentation. I really hope it was helpful. If you have any other questions for me specifically, feel free to reach out to the Barn to Door team and they can direct your questions to me. Thank you so much and stay safe. All right, there you have it. Convenience means meeting your customers where they're at already. It means making it easy to order and get your food and reducing friction. It is the tipping point.
00:37:28
Speaker
We were really grateful to have Karen join us for the conference and thank you for tuning in and listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Come back next week. We are going to talk about brand time savings and building your brand online. You will not want to miss it. We'll talk to you next week.