Farmer’s market sets up stall in cyberspace

Source: The times – http://tinyurl.com/yczc6zf

The village farmer’s market is going high-tech in its battle against the supermarkets by launching a website that allows shoppers to stroll around virtual stalls and buy artisan produce.

Fans of World of Warcraft may not appear to be the natural buyers of Cornish blue cheese, Five Fruit marmalade and Anglesey sea salt but the market trader behind the site believes that the ability to “meet” the farmer on the site will appeal to online shoppers who do not have time to visit traditional farmers’ markets.

Marcus Carter, a pâté maker who founded the Virtual Farmers Market site, said: “It’s the story of the food that everyone comes to the market for, and I thought surely we can reproduce that experience online.”

The site, which launches on New Year’s Day, employs the 3D technology used for developing video games to bring the virtual market to life. At first it will have 45 stalls selling condiments, meat, cheese, fish, soups, sweets and oils but it expects to showcase more than 100 in the future.

Mr Carter, who sells his family’s “Patchwork Pâté” at the King’s Road farmer’s market in West London every Wednesday, said customers could watch videos of the farmers to connect with the product. He added that previous attempts to create online markets had limited success as they simply listed products without making a link to the people behind them. He said: “There is a certain section of people who want to know where their food has come from that won’t trust a simple picture on a website.”

He argued that the site would appeal to customers who already shopped on the internet but wanted to find products that the online supermarkets do not stock. “People who shop in supermarkets and their sites tend to buy off a list, whereas people who visit delicatessens and farmer’s markets are more like hunter-gatherers. They’ll take £40 to spend but don’t know what they will buy before they see what is on offer.”

With a £35 minimum spend and a £12 charge for overnight delivery from the company’s London warehouse, the virtual farmer’s market is unlikely to appeal to bargain-hunters.

Mr Carter, who owns the site with Roger Saunt, his business partner, and spent £50,000 developing it, said the flat-fee charge reflected the cost of the company’s temperature-controlled boxes and using Parcelforce to send the produce. He added that the minimum spend ensured he would not lose money, as many online retailers do with small purchases, “if someone only orders two jars of marmalade”.

He said he was targeting £5 million in sales and 500 deliveries a day within three years.

Giving local producers a platform to reach customers at a national level meant they could scale up without selling through the giant supermarket chains, he said. “It’s small numbers for the likes of Tesco but it’s very large numbers for a Cornish cheese maker.”

Colin Boswell, who grows garlic on the Isle of Wight and has a stall at Borough Market in South London, already sells 15 to 20 per cent of his garlic through his own website. Mr Boswell thinks the new site should boost sales further as it will enable him to reach customers who would not have encountered him before.

Mr Boswell admits that he thought the idea sounded far-fetched at first but is now a believer, even if it is virtual: “Eventually we may be able to smell the garlic perfume down the ether.”