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Success, Security, and Simplicity with Barn2Door Point of Sale
600 Plays1 year ago
In this week’s episode we sit down with Anthony, Barn2Door’s Product Manager, and discuss the Barn2Door Point of Sale (POS). After several months on the market, we dig into Farmer’s success with the device, and the added security and simplicity provided by the recent addition of Mobile Wallets, Google Pay and Apple Pay, on the Barn2Door POS.
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Transcript
Introduction to Direct Farm Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Direct Farm podcast, the go to resource for farms across the US looking to grow and manage their business. Tune in weekly to hear tips and tactics from our most successful farmers on how to increase sales, access more customers and save time and money. We'll also speak with industry experts, business leaders and partners to share the latest farm business trends selling direct to market.
00:00:27
Speaker
Welcome today to the Direct Farm podcast.
Meet the Host and Guest
00:00:29
Speaker
I'm James, your host for today's episode. We've got another great conversation for you today with Barnador's very own product manager, Anthony Mayaco. Anthony joined Barnador more than three years ago in the height of the pandemic as part of Barnador's success team. He helped onboard hundreds of farms all across the United States. And then a year later, Anthony moved into product management to help us define and prioritize our engineering investments.
00:00:54
Speaker
Now over the past year, Anthony's actually expanded his role and responsibilities to take on management and use of the Barnadore user experience and support teams too. He was educated as a mechanical engineer and continued to invest his time and energies to help Barnadore best serve farms. So really delighted to have him
Anthony's Journey into Agriculture
00:01:11
Speaker
here today. Anthony, welcome back to the Barnadore Direct Farm podcast.
00:01:15
Speaker
Thank you for having me. Well, hey, let's go ahead and jump in. I know we got a lot to cover today, but could you start just telling us a little bit about yourself and what prompted your initial interest in agriculture before you joined Barn Door?
00:01:29
Speaker
Um, it, it goes back to probably somewhere there in middle school. Of all things, I probably couldn't tell you like exactly why it was an interest in chickens that kind of kicked the whole thing off. Like where that exactly came from, like who knows? But, um, I was keenly interested in having and owning chickens and was doing research and all that good stuff. And then of all things, uh,
00:01:54
Speaker
I decided to start a little website because I was trying to aggregate all this information about chicken breeds. It's no longer up there, but it was picking a chicken.com, but it actually did okay for a little while there. It made its way onto the first page of Google.
00:02:11
Speaker
That was step one, and then that just led me to work at the local range, feed and supply store through the summers and high school. One thing led to another, and now here I am, however many years later, barn to door.
00:02:27
Speaker
Wow.
Role Evolution at Barnador
00:02:28
Speaker
Well, it seems like chicken is always the gateway drug for a lot of farmers to get involved with agriculture. Certainly appreciate your affinity for chickens. I know many people on our team go to you with questions about specific breeds. That's good that you have all that background that I shouldn't experience. Well, since joining Barnadore, your role and responsibilities have certainly evolved significantly during your tenure. What do you enjoy most about your position now at Barnadore, now that you've got purview over product, user experience, and support?
00:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, uh, particularly the close relationship between the product side and support is something that we enjoy at a business level. Um, support has really great finger on the pulse in terms of what our farmers are asking questions about or need a little bit more explanation. And then product is where we help decide what we're going to work on next. So it's, you know, pretty easy to see how those dovetails one end to the other.
00:03:25
Speaker
Having that relationship between the two departments is certainly a nice handoff. But then for me, just getting the chance to actually see those improvements delivered to our farmers and see the positive feedback is probably my personal favorite. That's great. It must be really tangible, obviously, for your team to be able to see that feedback coming in and then work with the engineering team on getting those things fixed and
Barnador's POS System Features
00:03:47
Speaker
resolved. Because there's no bug-free code. There's always room for improvement. But it's great that you have your eyes across all of that.
00:03:53
Speaker
So it's been a few months since Barnadore made its new point of sale device and its mobile application generally available for purchase. How's it going so far?
00:04:02
Speaker
Quite well. We have actually put out a survey to the farms that have been using our point of sale device, and the feedback has been very positive. So it's been exciting to see the results of that. So can you tell me, I know the survey has several questions. Let's just kick off with a couple of questions specifically. What's been the feedback specifically about ease of use, getting started, just the basic setup? Because sometimes it can be a little intimidating to get a device and try to pair it with an application on your phone. Yeah.
00:04:31
Speaker
So going through one of our main priorities when we were designing this whole point of sale experience was making it as easy as possible for a farmer to take their existing inventory list. And when they log into the point of sale, the very first time to have that just
00:04:49
Speaker
show up and they're pretty much ready to go. Um, so the feedback to that end has been very positive. People get to enjoy many of the elements of what they enjoy about their barn to door storefronts. Uh, they're on point sales while having all of their variable weight items and everything ready to go. And then with respect to like connecting the reader itself to the phone, is that just as simple as the same thing you would do with any other Bluetooth device?
00:05:14
Speaker
Yep. Just through the point of sale application itself, it'll pop up and prompt you to connect to a reader. And that's been a probably pretty quick experience from what we've heard from our farmers. So go through and search for devices, pops up and hit connecting, you're squared away. That's super.
00:05:35
Speaker
So Anthony, it's been a few months since the Barnadore POS was released and as we were just discussing, having a really easy setup is really important out of the box. But I know that you guys spent several months and actually over a year developing this product and you guys wanted to have a POS that was truly built for farmers and have some things that nobody else offered. What are a couple of those key features that Barnadore debuted day one with their point of sale device that farmers are really loving?
00:06:05
Speaker
Yeah, the first one that jumps to mind is a real-time inventory sync between a farmer's online store and the in-person point of sale. To give a quick example, if you have 100 chickens, it's the same inventory number between both sides of the system. So you could have your 100 chickens online.
00:06:27
Speaker
maybe before the farmer's market, manage pre-sell 15 or 20. And then when you're there in person, you still have that 85 chickens available.
Success Stories and Mobile Integration
00:06:36
Speaker
Maybe you do well at the market, sell 40 or 50 of them and you come out the other side and the number everywhere is going to be down at 35. So no reconciliation.
00:06:47
Speaker
necessary after the fact. So that's a huge time saving. So regardless of whether or not somebody's purchasing online, even while you're at the market, that inventory is going to update in real time. So there could be somebody purchasing five chickens while you're at the market for a few hours, but at the same time, to your point, if you sell 50 chickens at the market,
00:07:06
Speaker
all of that's going to be deducting from that single count of that product, right? So that's a really cool feature. What's the second thing? I know farmers have some unique requirements. What's the other big feature that farmers are really excited about?
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah. The other one that is definitely worth highlighting is the ability to sell by weight. Um, so again, we'll have this chicken, so you sell them online. Maybe you aren't normally spelling them at $28 a piece or something along those lines. You can take that same chicken that you're selling for a set price online and be able to sell that by weight in person.
00:07:42
Speaker
Maybe the market you prefer to weigh everything out and make sure that the customer in front of you is getting an exact charge amount. So going through, you're able to charge the three chickens and draw those three chickens down from your inventory count accurately, but still charge by weight to the customer. So being able to kind of have that split and the support of being able to charge by weight to the customer, whether online.
00:08:10
Speaker
or in-person as a feature we looked to bring across from the online store to the in-person experience.
00:08:15
Speaker
So when I'm in person with my POS, I could literally with just one toggle on that item, flip it from a fixed price to a sell by weight. So all of a sudden that chicken, like you said, which may be charging simply $28 online for a flat fee, in person, I could actually charge to four pounds, two ounces, exactly, right? And it would just calculate it automatically. So I might pull three birds out of my cooler at the market,
00:08:40
Speaker
Each of them might have a different weight. I could charge the exact weight and I can get every penny to the ounce essentially, right? Yep. And no extra special configuration needed in the background. Like if a customer walks up and you want to change that, you can all just do it right on the spot quickly and easily. That is really slick. I can see why farmers are clapping for that feature. That's a huge, huge value add.
00:09:03
Speaker
Um, so now back to the time put into developing and designing this experience. I understand again, more than 18 months of research and development to get this first version of the POS out into the wild. Can you share, you know, a couple of stories, perhaps how farmers are using it today? What's, what's an example where a farmer you've had been with barn to door for some time, perhaps have had a lot of online sales. How are they doing now with POS? Is this something new that's enabling the capture additional volume?
00:09:30
Speaker
Yeah, the release of the point of sale for many of the farms we work with has been a huge win-win. For them, the ability to kind of further lean into their in-person sales, some of these farms we work with didn't even have a point of sale previously. So obviously a huge value add there for them. But then the ability to have all of those features that come with Barnadore kind of wrapped into their in-person
00:09:59
Speaker
point of sale experience as well. So all sales are going to get appropriately synced in their QuickBooks integration if they have that set up or things of that nature. There's a farm we worked with out in Kentucky who had done some volume with us in the previous year. Not what we classify as a super high number, but
00:10:19
Speaker
They bought a point of sale system actually to the readers. And lo and behold, they have started doing in-person sales and have now done many tens of thousands of dollars in volume in person, which has been really remarkable to see. So seeing farmers able to really lean into the point of sale experience and find additional volume for themselves by being able to offer an additional measure of convenience
00:10:45
Speaker
for their customers or they're in person and maybe want to add an item on to their online order or something like that has been really incredible to see.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's a real use case. I know talking with many farmers myself that they've been very excited about, right? To your point, maybe they never had a point of sale previously. And now all of a sudden when they're doing their pickups with the point of sale, that's affording them the opportunity to capture additional add-on sales in person, even though that person may have already pre-ordered it for pickup, right? So that's just a really nice, just again, supplemental income for these farmers. Great to see that it's in many cases been quite material, like double digit lift in volume for some of these farms.
00:11:24
Speaker
Now, now that, you know, Barnadore has been in the market for several months, you know, it must be fun beginning to work on some of the refinements based on all this feedback for our farmers, right? So I know you survey farmers all the time. You're looking for this feedback. We're always looking for more ideas on how we can make our solution and in this case, the Barnadore point of sale more useful.
00:11:45
Speaker
So recently we announced the expansion of the Barnet door point of sale to support mobile wallets. So can you explain a little bit more about what a mobile wallet is and then we can talk about why it's a big deal.
00:11:58
Speaker
Yeah, so mobile wallets for those not familiar are an application within someone's phone where they have the ability to enter in their credit card. So they load in their credit card and they're actually able to use their phone for in-person transactions without even having the card there. So someone can load their.
00:12:21
Speaker
Amex or their Visa right onto their phone, and then when they're tapping their phone in person for checkout, as we've all gotten more and more used to, the reader pretty much thinks that it's a card right there on the spot. So that's a big deal, right? Because I know both Apple and Google have native applications to Apple Pay and Google Pay that are available with every iPhone or with every Android device.
00:12:47
Speaker
that support these types of mobile wallets right on the phone. So we've expanded out to mobile wallets for many farmers. This might be new territory for them. Maybe they've heard about it. Maybe they haven't. I know this took some time and energy for our engineering team to implement. Why is this such a big deal in terms of looking ahead for a farmer's growth?
00:13:06
Speaker
Yeah. Well, while the idea of a mobile wallet on the surface might sound like a little bit gimmicky, it really is something that is here to stay. Just by the numbers, 49% of all buyers have now completed a purchase using a mobile wallet. And to kind of tack onto that, 37% of buyers say they make the majority of all their purchases with a mobile wallet.
00:13:29
Speaker
Looking at the buyer base, that number is just continuing to grow and grow. There are many folks in the younger generations who would leave their homes without a credit card on them at all. So it is absolutely imperative to make sure that you are able to support this method of payment and something that we see looking ahead as something that's here to stay and super important to make sure that you can accept.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah, and I don't know if I qualify as younger, I'm 52, but I know I use mobile wallets and it is my preferred form of payment. I certainly, while I still keep a credit card on person just in case I need it for somewhere because there are some vendors who don't accept mobile wallet payments, wherever a mobile wallet payment is available, that's what I use, right? Because I can simply just pay with my fingerprint or with my actual facial recognition as well.
00:14:21
Speaker
So let's talk a little bit about why this big shift, right? Why is this driving so much? Why is there so much enthusiasm amongst buyers for using mobile wallets for in-person payments? Like what are some of the big trends that you think are driving this? What's the first thing that comes to mind?
00:14:38
Speaker
Yeah, definitely a couple factors here. First one being the convenience for these buyers. I mean, as some of the listeners might have seen before, like the ability to just hover their smartphone over whatever reader they might be using to make a payment. And for the buyer, it's very quick. And as we noted, it's very heavily used by them. So it's a level of convenience that they're quickly becoming used to.
00:15:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's easy. I do this all the time. I just carry my phone in my back pocket. Wherever I walk in to grab a cup of coffee, I just pull my phone out and make a quick and easy payment. What's the second big thing here that you're seeing or driving this? Is there some value out also even for the vendors as well?
00:15:22
Speaker
Yeah. Looking towards this in our modern world, the second point is going to be security. Depending on that application, I know Apple uses facial recognition. Google will use either that or usually a pen or your fingerprint to make sure that
00:15:37
Speaker
the customer is really there with their card, which can help reduce dispute and fraud rates. So there's benefits there for the vendors in terms of reduced chargebacks. And then, yeah, making sure that those facial recognitions, especially, will look through and make sure, I think, Apple's facial recognition uses 30,000 data points to make sure that you are who you are right there. So make sure not to wear your sunglasses.
00:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, there's a layer of security there that benefits both the buyer and the seller when making these payments with mobile wallets. That's super impressive, right? Because I know my pin on my phone is only six digits, right? But 30,000 points for facial recognition? That's pretty insane. That sounds like a pretty hard algorithm to crack. I can understand why Apple and Google are also encouraging people to use mobile wallets.
00:16:29
Speaker
What else? We obviously went through COVID recent years and people have a lot of concern about touching things. Is sanitation kind of something else that you're seeing too? It's like people just don't want to touch terminals, that kind of thing, you know, when they're going up and using a mobile wallet.
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah, well, the ability to just hover and tap and pay many times is, like I said, quicker and easier for folks. But yeah, the ability to just use their own device, which they're very comfortable with and never have to come into contact with anything else is probably a growing priority in many buyers' minds as well, especially kind of with more sensitivity about public spaces and given the events of the last few years.
00:17:10
Speaker
yeah okay okay and then lastly is there any other big trends i know people are increasingly busy in their lives is there anything else that you think is helping to really drive the mobile wallet adoption because obviously to see half of all americans now having completed a mobile wallet transaction that's a big deal something must be going right
00:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, well, if we're looking at trends, I think we can all say that people are increasingly attached and probably dependent on their smartphones, but folks are more likely to probably forget their wallet at home than their smartphone at this stage. And we are in a world that's increasingly busy as well. You know, folks are multitasking when they're right there making that in-person transaction, you know.
00:17:53
Speaker
dog trying to run off for a child on their hip or something like that. So it's one of those things where they only need one hand to do it, so they don't need to worry about pulling out their wallet and trying to manage an impressive feat of dexterity to get the card out and present it. Instead, they can just hold their phone out, like many of us do many times a day, hover it, and then be on their way very quickly, easily, with one hand.
00:18:20
Speaker
So what I'm hearing is not only convenient, but it's simple, right? Like, so you don't have to have, like you said, fumbling around for cards. You're not having to insert something into a terminal, particularly if you've got a cup of coffee or a dog leash in your hand, in the other hand, or perhaps you're holding the products that you're purchasing from the farmer, right? It just works easy. Everything's simple for that buyer. I can understand. I know I'm a huge advocate of mobile wallets. This is why I use mobile wallets almost exclusively. And so hopefully farmers, if you're listening to this, you're hearing just again,
00:18:50
Speaker
this growing enthusiasm of buyers, but a big part of this too is you're also going to improve that experience for your buyers who are going to be happier with that experience at your mobile checkout. So if you were talking with a farmer who was skeptical about mobile wallets, Anthony, and who had never used them before, what are a couple of points that you would try to come back to or want them to just, again, think through before passing on this opportunity?
00:19:17
Speaker
Sure. So in terms of just mobile wallet usage, just to point back towards some of those kind of trends and numbers we were looking at before, it is something that buyers are increasingly looking towards and using in their personal lives as many as one out of three buyers who prefer to use mobile wallets to make the majority of their in-person payments.
00:19:43
Speaker
Something that as we've seen has grown over the past years and it's continuing to grow and is increasingly an expectation of your buyers to be able to have this payment option available. So it's really not a question if mobile wallets are going to happen, it's a question of whether or not the farmers are going to support it, right? Because buyers like me and increasingly more and more buyers are just going to come to expect it, right? So that's a big deal.
00:20:05
Speaker
So for listeners who are existing Barnadore account holders, what do they need to do to get started? So if they haven't ordered a POS device, what's the first step? And if they already have a Barnadore POS device, what do they need to do?
00:20:18
Speaker
For those who are on-door account holders without a point of sale, I mean, it's just going to be on your online account. You're able to go through and order a reader under the account tab and point of sale. So pretty quick and easy to get that shipped to your door. And then beyond that, for all those who already have a point of sale and have been kind of seeing and using the application,
00:20:45
Speaker
you can use it in much the same way as you were using it before. So you'll now notice if you have an updated version of your application that when you click credit card and you go through and the customer chooses how much they want to tip at the bottom of that screen where the customer is prompted to
00:21:02
Speaker
present their credit card, it now just supports Apple and Google Pay. So no further setup needed. Just make sure that your application is up to date. It probably is. Most people have their phones on auto update. So yeah, it should just be there, baked in, ready to go for all those farms who've been using the application themselves.
00:21:23
Speaker
That's super. So if I'm an existing Barnadore account holder and I got my POS, I can start taking Apple and Google payments today. Like there's nothing holding me back. Yep. Awesome. And from what I understand too, there's no additional cost or any ongoing costs associated with the POS device from Barnadore either. Is that correct?
00:21:41
Speaker
Correct. Yeah, just the purchase of the reader itself. And then from that point forward, you're golden. So like I said, trying to make this as easy and accessible for our farms who are looking to kind of add this opportunity and ability to take payments in person for their buyers.
Impact and Resources
00:21:57
Speaker
That's super. So, hey, before we wrap up, Anthony, I know that you look at and analyze a lot of data usage and trends. What's one of the things that you're most excited to share about the Barnard or point of sale that may not be obvious to our listeners?
00:22:11
Speaker
Yeah, well, looking at all of the different surveys and everything that we do, a lot of positive feedback there. But one of the most exciting numbers for me is just seeing the increase in revenue for our farm. So for them, there's been a double digit increase in the volume for the farmers with Barned Door utilizing the point of sale system. And hard to put too much emphasis on that, but that's been a really incredible number to see.
00:22:40
Speaker
That's huge. I know if somebody came in and offered me a double digit increase on my salary, I would take that tomorrow. Sign me up for that too. Hey, if you're a Barnadore account holder and you have not yet ordered a point of sale device, you can simply log into your account today, go to the account tab and scroll down to point of sale and you can place your order on a point of sale and get one this week. Literally, it's that easy.
00:23:02
Speaker
If you're a farmer who's not yet working with Barnadore looking for an all-in-one solution, hey, look, come check us out. We've obviously made a heavy investment to make this experience easy and simple to use, not just for your online sales, but for in-person and keeping everything in sync. I want to extend my thanks to Anthony for joining us on this week's podcast episode and its ongoing contributions to leadership of Barnadore. Thank you, Anthony.
00:23:24
Speaker
And here at Barnadore, we're humbled to support thousands of farms across the country. We're honored to get the opportunity to learn from many of our most successful farmers who share their tactics, resources, and tools that they use to grow and manage their farm business. If you're looking for more information about the Barnadore point of sale, check out our website at barnadore.com and navigate to software backslash point of sale.
00:23:46
Speaker
There you can dive into all the features of the Barnador POS built for farmers to help you increase sales and save time. Thank you for tuning in to the Barnador Direct Farm Podcast, and we'll look forward to seeing you next time.
00:24:01
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in. For more free farm resources, tips, and tactics that are most successful farms used to grow and manage their business, visit barnadore.com slash resources. Also don't forget to subscribe to the Direct Farm podcast to automatically download our weekly episodes. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.