

Ask HN: Customers say “great idea and product” but they don't download - buyfromfarm

Hi, I am the founder of Buy From Farm (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;buyfrom.farm) - let people sell&#x2F;buy produce from&#x2F;to their neighbors.
I believe vendors at farmers&#x27; markets would be my potential customers so I visited local farmers&#x27; markets at Austin, Texas. 
I talked about what our app can do, demoed the push notification features to show a vendor can reach people at farmer&#x27;s markets in a real-time. 
I also noticed all of them are using smart phones, majority of them are android&#x27;s. They understand what&#x27;s push notification. 
They understood our app is free to download. I also talked to them when they were free, no customer there. 
I ended our conversion as quickly as I could while someone stopped by at their stands.
I received very positive feedback. 19 of 20 I have talked likes the idea very much. The only one thought I was selling cell phones since we didn&#x27;t really have conversion and they turned me down. 
I collected their business cards, also left a flyer with download instruction to each one I talked. And I sent followup emails to them next Monday.<p>But it turned out no single downloaded happened from this visit. 0 of 19 doesn&#x27;t sound right.<p>What did I do wrong? Or there is something I missed.
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MalcolmDiggs
On my sites, visitor behavior never ceases to amaze me. Before you go re-
thinking your business plan I would recommend watching your analytics closely
(it looks like you're using GA, which is nice; you might wanna give Heap a try
though, it's nice for this kind of use-case).

You wanna narrow down exactly where the problem is. Did people fail to visit
the site at all? Did they visit then fail to follow the links to the app
store? Did they go to the app store and then fail to download? These are all
very different problems. Pay close attention to the browsers/devices people
are actually using on your site, and make sure you're testing/emulating those
experiences (so you can see what they see). There might be a bug somewhere.
Once you rule these kinds of things out, then it might be worth revisiting
your strategy/pitch, but I don't think you're quite there yet.

------
RogerL
I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but your site is pretty bad.
The text reads like it was written by a non-native speaker. I had to puzzle
just to figure out what some sentences were saying. Then the interaction was a
bit wonky (sometimes things scroll up down, sometimes left right, sometimes
popouts). The images behind the text made it extremely hard to read.

Putting myself in the mind of a vendor, I can't imagine wanting to try to
enter anything significant via a phone. You don't seem to have any web
presence besides this landing page. Do you have any customers, any traction? I
probably already work from sun up to after sun down; do I really want to take
extra time for this for completely unproven benefits? How many more people
will I reach by just posting on Facebook? Why aren't you linked to Facebook?
Do I have to do something on Facebook, then come to your app and do it again?
No thanks. What if I get a bad review? Is it there forever? Can I protest it?

If it was already the one and only app for farmer markets, I could see maybe
signing up. But putting all that effort and risk into a start up? Nah. What's
in it for me vs going to Facebook?

As a customer - what is in it for me? I want to wander around and look, not be
checking my phones for updates ('honey now 20% off. Come see our scones').
There is marginal value in discovering farmer's markets, but they are
scheduled well in advance; a 10 second google tells me all the farmer's
markets in my area. If there is one near me that I am interested in, I'll just
'like' it on Facebook.

Finally, the website confused me. You start by talking to the farmer. Then you
seem to be saying consumers can sell their own extra produce. I'm not sure.
Can I sell my garden vegetables? And this brings us back around to the poor
English.

I'm not saying all those objections are correct, but I think you need pretty
good answers to them if you want people to download your app.

~~~
buyfromfarm
Oh, you talk about the website. You think the website kills users motivation?
The thing was that 1) my previous website wasn't like this at all (no venders
signed up, I shifted my idea to neighbors who wants to sell produce to
neighbors) 2) I just told them how to download the app. Like searching "buy
from farm". I personally don't think your comment is trying to answer my
questions because it can't be no single download. They already saw how app
works.

------
seanccox
I am not a farmer, but I have lived and worked alongside them and I have to
ask: What problem are you trying to solve? Is the problem you solved a problem
that farmers have?

Personally, I don't think you understand the dynamics of the small farm
market, or what the people involved (as growers or buyers) want and need. My
two closest friends recently launched their rural Indiana farm, and I've spent
time with them on farms in VT over the past several yeas. I've had lots of
conversations with farmers about the potential of technologies and apps, and
discussed problems they face. In a dozen conversations, no one mentioned
problems selling to their neighbors or unloading product at local markets.
This is probably because most farmers aren't earning their main income from
those sources, and instead they go there to maintain a presence in their
communities.

However, all of the farmers I spoke with had difficulties finding steady
income selling bulk to restaurants or other large buyers on a regular basis.
Go solve that problem, and I'm sure you will get your downloads.

------
Happy2Help
This might be useful for you. The founder talks about the exact same problem -
prospects say they like the idea but no conversions.

[https://medium.com/@michalbohanes/seven-lessons-i-learned-
fr...](https://medium.com/@michalbohanes/seven-lessons-i-learned-from-the-
failure-of-my-first-startup-dinnr-c166d1cfb8b8)

~~~
buyfromfarm
Thank you for sharing this. Even though my mind is telling me that my case is
way different. I read through and will think hard. A followup question: what
should I do? I am not gonna close my door without trying harder.

------
27182818284
I visit the farmer's markets here (not Austin) maybe once or twice a week and
I'm not sure why I would want to use this app.

I'd recommend a lot more customer feedback development/interviews (to use the
Steve Blank term) For example, It should be more like 5 to 10 people _per day_
rather than 20 people in total. Farmers and people that visit farmer's
markets, are generally polite. They're going to say yes to you and then just
not download it, rather than say, "I hate this." You'll will have to dig deep,
but politely dig, and do a lot more interviews.

For me personally, I just don't understand what value this gives me or what
hair-on-fire problem I need this to solve. (I've also thought about building
an app for the farmer's market too, but with a very different
approach/business model focused on questions and Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA) problems I've encountered.)

~~~
buyfromfarm
Ok. Can I interview you first? Why wont you use it? Assume you are a user. Do
you know what can you buy when you visit a farmer's market? I know you can
check the website of a farmers market. But most of them don't have vendor
product info. Let's see you know Barton creek FM so well you know each stand.
How about at Muller? Will you just go there to try you luck. You can also
argue most of vendors have their own websites. But really? A small business
like them to build and maintain a website? I saw most of websites are old and
lack of update for Barton's. A followup question: use this app, you see your
neighbor is putting up some small trees for sale, like craigslist, will you
buy from your neighbor. Like my mentor, a golf legend, plants 50+ trees at his
backyard, he wants to sell some of them, at his 70's, how could he do that? In
the end, and also how I pitched, most of grocery shopping happens at formal
and informal farmers market in developing counties such as in China and India.
So I also think there is a huge opportunity there.

------
palidanx
As a person who visits tons of farmer's markets (some food vendors are my
clients across the nation), I'm not exactly sure if vendors at farmer's
markets who sell produce would specifically be your niche.

Generally speaking a farmer hits X # of markets per week to sell their
produce. Selling small scale to individual consumers wouldn't work well for
their time.

However I have heard of some restaurants in LA where they accept extra produce
from neighborhoods for their restaurant (not sure if they buy it necessarily).

------
JSeymourATL
> what should I do? I am not gonna close my door without trying harder.

Repetition is key-- visit these same people again, and again. Get to know them
and their business. Question: are the vendors the true decision-makers or just
helpers?

Focus on getting just ONE conversion as a pilot project. Hold their hand till
it gets traction. All the other vendors will take note if this thing works.
Mindset is helpful, this is part of the market discovery process.

~~~
buyfromfarm
Helpful one. I actually met a CEO of a local wine company. He was excited (at
least he asked a lot of questions), pointed me to his VP Marketing. Some are
helpers. I will lock one and follow up.

~~~
JSeymourATL
For what it's worth-- do ping me if you would like to compare notes on
strategy/execution, etc...

------
gesman
Don't talk to people about your app and downloads and push notifications. They
don't understand this language and zoom out while keeping polite conversation
with you.

Talk to them in their terms - tell them that you'll help them to sell more and
reach more customers. Tell them how much more specifically - even though it's
a very rough estimate.

Let them ask "how" and go from there.

------
seekingcharlie
I'd have a look at what competitor's are already doing in the space:

[https://www.goodeggs.com/](https://www.goodeggs.com/)

~~~
buyfromfarm
this is a blank page. nothing is there. tested with chrome and safari.

~~~
seekingcharlie
Look again, closer.

It's a simple page that asks users to take a core action - choose the market
in their area. You can then view all items that you can have ordered to you
from farmers/producers.

They have been gaining a lot of traction which is why I told you to look at
them.

------
sharemywin
follow up. find out why it wasn't worth their time. why not have them download
it right then and there.

------
Mz
I am wondering what problem you are trying to solve. I am wondering if you
even have a clear problem in mind or if this is a solution in search of a
problem.

What is your so-called _elevator speech_ for this product?

As RogerL indicated, the site does need a lot of work. But, I think a deeper
problem is that I don't really see a clear business model here. I see
something that looks like this type of thinking: "1) make app 2) talk to
vendors 3) (something happens here 4) Profit!" and I will suggest that vendors
at farmer's markets are not there to try to make you rich. You have got to
offer something of value to them.

Best of luck.

~~~
buyfromfarm
Well. Making me rich as my intention is probably a little bit too much. At
least I think I am trying to help them. The idea is from neighbors helping
neighbors. I am from China. Nowadays almost 99% grocery shopping is done in
farmer's markets in China, India and almost most developing countries. There
are countless news about farmers couldn't find buyers. This is the problem I
am solving. If you think my solution is bad. There are a few startups I found
out, funded, and charged vendors up to $100/month for providing their product
info. I understand you are trying to help. But not happy with my intention is
challenged.

~~~
Mz
Okay, so are you actually doing this in China then? Because I am American and
I imagine most folks here are answering from an American or European or other
more developed country perspective. So if you will clarify where your market
is, that might help you get better feedback from the people here.

I am sorry you are offended. I was not challenging your intention. I was
telling you what the product looks like to an outsider who has no idea what
your intention is. It is your job to make it clear what the intent is by how
you frame it. Bill Gates said "Your unhappiest customers are your greatest
source of learning" (or something close to that). You have to learn to take
constructive feedback for what it is: Useful information. If you get upset
with people for trying to give you feedback, it gets less likely you will
continue getting it and that is a much, much bigger problem than being told
something you aren't happy hearing.

Again: Best of luck.

~~~
buyfromfarm
Well, my website is in English and I am asking a question in a English Forum
so apparently I am targeting US. I understand your point. Yes, I should do my
own research before I started to make an app. Tell me this is the story of
facebook, dropbox, box, airbnb, etc. Not related but I am pretty new to HN. I
thought the answer to a question should be related. Personally I don't get how
your answer is USEFUL. From my understanding, the vendors I interviewed were
happy with this solution. And You were telling me it's a wrong product. It's
contradictory, isn't it?

~~~
lazylizard
maybe 当局者迷，旁观者清? all they are doing is telling you what they, as strangers,
see and feel when they visit your site/service. you can choose to accept those
perspectives or not. and some of the feedback is even actionable. and if even
that is not helpful/useful i cant really imagine what is, especially
considering you asked some strangers for help and they all have nothing to
gain by either helping or not..they're all just..trying to be helpful?

