Recipient Organization
UNIVERSAL SCHEDULE AND BOOKING LLC
701 WASHINGTON ST
HARPERS FERRY,WV 254256998
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Our product builds a digital bridge between small to mid-size farmers and consumers, while simultaneously collecting valuable, real-time data on the desires and expectations of consumers. This data will inform the production and marketing decisions of farmers, leading to increased opportunities for direct-to-consumer sales and income generation in the rural communities where many small to mid-size farms are located. In this Phase I study we will determine the feasibility of new technology for customers and small and mid-size farmers that accomplishes sustainable direct-to-consumer sales in profitable ways through determining the key features of the App to develop to support farmers using the application and driving consumers to the marketplace. We will then develop these features into an easy to use digital application. Opportunities facilitated by this product include creative place making, direct-to-consumer agricultural economies, agritourism, e-commerce innovations that connect farmers with consumer markets, and off-farm value-added agricultural development. These new or enhanced economic activities will directly benefit farmers by providing a direct-to-consumer virtual marketplace for agricultural products, increasing awareness of agriculture by urban customers, and providing new sources of income for agricultural producers. Our project advances the goals of Topic 8.12 Research Priority 2, Development of New Marketing Strategies for Small and Mid-size Farms.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
5%
Applied
50%
Developmental
45%
Goals / Objectives
Goals / ObjectivesSmall and mid-size family farms operate nearly three-fourths of all farmland and account for about half of all production.These farms struggle to keep their operations running and net farm income has seen little improvement over the past two decades [1].Small and mid-size farms have an average operating profit margin of less than 10 percent, placing them at high risk of financial problems (USDA) [2].Local food has been the subject of federal, state, and local government policy in recent years as consumer interest in and demand for local foods has grown. The growth in consumer demand is not necessarily translating into increased marketing opportunities for small and mid-sized organic farmers. Many studies have shown that marketing is a major challenge faced by small and mid-scale organic farmers to access direct-to-consumer (DTC) opportunities for their local food products. In 2017, just over 6% of U.S. farms were marketing food for human consumption locally through so-called DTC marketing channels [3-7].We seek to determine the feasibility of a new mobile app, LocalCart® that small and mid-size farmers can use to sell locally grown foods and unique touristic experiences in a sustainable direct-to-consumer business model.Overall, the state-of-the-art electronic platforms are not equipped to provide these essentials. Our research shows consumers want new features that are convenient, save time, produce better meaning, and are fun to use (See Table 1, Letters of Support for Stakeholders and Tourist Customers). Farmers struggle with outdated systems that deplete their time, resources, and morale (See Table 1, Letters of Support for Business Customers). Some existing marketplace solutions try to solve this by aggregating sellers, but they process payments directly for sellers. This cuts out the granular data that's needed to drive a new business model that lightens the burden on farmers and produces intuitive e-commerce that consumers want. Our proprietary technology generates new forms of data, captures value with it, and enables more efficient marketing bridges for farmers and businesses. It's like an Airbnb model that acts as an intermediary for property owners. In our case we add proprietary technology that leverages our data thesis further. This suggests there are critical business needs, management, and programmatic implications for rural producers.The present state of the art in e-commerce is not built for marketing agricultural, forestry and aquacultural commodities and value-added products produced by small farms, so numerous gaps in the agricultural DTC ecosystem require our technology. As internet connections spread further into rural areas and smart devices penetrate the world's largest agricultural markets, more opportunities to use technology for the benefit of farmers are being unlocked. The total value of the global digital farming market is expected toreach $10.2 billion by 2025 [8]. An online marketplace could help farms who sell food directly to customers compete with other retailers by reducing the costs (such as time and transportation) of transactions at in-person markets such as farmers markets or other traditional markets.LocalCart®, registered by the applicant in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is a transformative solution that fulfills the marketing needs of small to mid-size farms while enhancing interactivity and the overall customer experience [9,10]. The essential challenge is the elimination of technical and socioeconomic barriers faced by agricultural providers struggling to generate business for products and services in an evolving marketplace [11-13].Table 1. Letters of Support, As FollowsAgritourism SegmentName of Supporting Organization, Business, or PersonStakeholdersUSDA Virginia Rural Development Office; Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) of Loudoun; VCE Economic Development Program; Virginia Foundation for Agriculture, Innovation and Rural Sustainability; Mary Joynt (Clayton Communications)MentorsJohn Casey; Robert Smith; Eric ByrdUniversity ContactsWest Virginia University (WVU) Extension Service; Ajay Aluri, WVU Business School; Stacey Kemp, Shepherd University Business SchoolDestination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)Visit Loudoun; Jefferson County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB); Visit Hagerstown - Washington County CVBBusiness Customers / Wineries, Brewers, DistillersFabbioli Cellars; Hillsborough Winery + Brewery; Old 690 Brewing + Harpers Ferry Brewing; Breaux VineyardsTourists CustomersMartha Marshall; Paul Boynton; Canal Towns PartnershipProducer & Merchant OrganizationsLoudoun Valley Homegrown Markets Cooperative; Alta Jones; Harpers Ferry Merchant Association; Hillsboro Business Alliance; Restoration B&B; Caspio; BizIQInvestorsCenter for Innovative Technology; West Virginia SBDC; Loudoun Economic Development; Koev Brothers; GusherBackground and RationaleBackground and technical approachIn the current e-commerce ecosystem (search engine and social media), platforms collect data by recording the online activities of customers. They monetize that data by selling placed advertisements. For example, if a consumer searches for places to stay, they will soon find themselves tracked by ads for hotels across the spectrum of digital platforms they use [14].Mobile is a preferred way to access consumer goods [15-18]. Existing platforms have focused mainly on the monetization of shared data rather than generating and using quality data. In contrast, our model builds new types of data with user food preferences and interests that pertain specifically to agritourism businesses. A consumer might include tastes for concord grapes, organic beef, and family-friendly food products in their profile. These become customer addressable datapoints to guide and promote consumer marketing with a refined, interest-based granularity that aligns supply and demand in a way that is otherwise difficult, if even possible, for a rural small to mid-size farmer to achieve. The current state of the art does not produce this level of detail. As our technology is scaled up and enters new markets, farmers could promote products, services, activities, and events with precision. Customers get what they want when they want it. And farmers will be able to access direct customers more easily through the platform, providing the needed results.We follow scientific methodology as articulated by the Lean Startup curriculum to test our value proposition hypotheses, assess feasibility of the technology, validate the business model, and determine go-to market strategy for our App [19-22]. Since we function as a technology to facilitate a direct-to-consumer agricultural marketplace our target audience consists of small to mid-size farms and their customers. We must conduct additional detailed research interviews with both groups to ensure that we are solving their needs. By conducting in-person interviews with our target audiences, we can assess feasibility with greater accuracy than surveys.
Project Methods
Work Plan for Technical Objective 1: Determine key features for a Minimum Viable Product.The table below demonstrates our project plan to attain the key insights necessary to build LocalCart. The three areas of R&D here include research questionnaire creation, analyzing user (farmer) desirables and habits, and acquiring and analyzing consumer/tourist desirables and habits.Table 2. Project Development ChartTechnical Objective 1Investigator / LocationJuly 2022Aug. 2022Sep. 2022Oct. 2022Nov. 2022Dec. 2022Jan. 2023Feb. 2023XXXXTask 1. Survey DevelopmentSmall Business / Locations 1 and 2XTask 2. Business InterviewsSmall Business / @Agricultural BusinessesXXXTask 3. First-Round Customer InterviewsSmall Business / Location 2 and @ Agricultural BusinessesXXXRationaleThis objective is essential to determine feasibility, as the software's added value for business depends on customers using it. For customers and businesses to embrace our software and our user base, we must have software that customers want to use [46,47]. The App needs to meet, or exceed, functionality that customers want.We chose the customer acceptance criterion first because customers are the ultimate drivers of data. Our system adds value to the data they generate in cooperation with the businesses who produce value from the agricultural marketplace. The most important feature we found from customers thus far is one cart for shopping agricultural products, agritourism services, experiences, tickets, and so forth. Additional features are: convenience, fun, an events engine, smart interactive maps, ease-of-use, time-savings, authenticity, experience, rewards, mattering, and high value. This objective will allow us to statistically quantify these "wants" and prepare the groundwork for further proprietary feature development during Phase II-III commercialization.Experimental Design & MethodsTask 1. Survey Development: The Lean Startup methodology uses open-ended questions and is conducted in a conversational format. This allows us to steer the conservations toward the pain-points, bottlenecks, time drains, "magic wand" wishes, and desired features. We ask questions that test hypotheses as we iteratively arrive at the value propositions for the specific customer segments (See Letter of Support from John Casey). We record conversations if given permission, produce transcripts, and distill the key insights onto documentation forms.Task 2. Interviews with Farmers: Small to mid-size farms are selected to provide a broad representation of agricultural products. Typically, the farmer or manager who oversees digital technology is the best choice for the interview. We work through Agricultural offices and local business associations to gain introductions. Then, we call and email to schedule meeting times. The PI will conduct interviews on site, telephone, and on video. We will seek 20-35 interviews with small to mid-size farms who sell agricultural products. The areas of focus will be, in ranking order based on the number of agritourism businesses, in the counties of: Loudoun, VA; Faquier, VA; Washington, MD; Frederick, MD; and Jefferson, WV (See Figure 1, with counties circled in red).Figure 1, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xMhxuqsbkKeouWTvvBK6bXmJb2nFBSPv/view?usp=sharingTask 3. "First-round" Interviews with consumers, 125-150 interviews: We will select businesses representing customer types that range in activity, place of residence, and age, focusing primarily on farmer market attendees and small business agricultural consumers who live within a 50-mile radius of Leesburg. Businesses typically welcome us to interview their customers. In our preliminary research interviews, we find that businesses want a deeper understanding of their customers with quantifiable data and are motivated to contribute to a new technology that could help local farmers.Figure 2. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GHIDnYKRuTNo3eKnbqC-n7oO98zEp_T2/view?usp=sharingWork Plan for Technical Objective 2. Demonstrate farmer/consumer dual-facing app.The table below shows our project plan for the completion of the workplan milestones associated with this objective.Table 3. Project Development ChartTechnical Objective 2Investigator / LocationJuly 2022Aug. 2022Sep. 2022Oct. 2022Nov. 2022Dec. 2022Jan. 2023Feb. 2023XXXXXXTask 1. Analyze ResultsSmall Business / Location 2, Larta / Location 2XXXXTask 2. Configure "A" & "B" AppsSmall Business / Locations 1 and 2XXXTask 3. Solutions InterviewsSmall Business / @Agricultural BusinessesXXXTask 4. Analyze ResultsSmall Business / Locations 1 and 2, Larta / Location 2XXXExperimental Design & MethodsTask 1. Analyze results: We will process the surveys and interviews to analyze the results. The software at www.temi.com will produce transcripts of interviews. We will process interviews with our form writeups and document insights. The results will be compiled with statistical analyses including ANOVA. We will determine features and design "A" and "B" versions of the App in the Agile low-code development environment.Task 2. Configure "A" and "B" Versions of the app: following 100+ customer research interviews. These types of interviews are directed towards assessing feedback on features in the App. Because of our proprietary app builder environment, we can produce two versions of the App and gauge feedback on certain features as well as the look-and-feel of the App versions. At this stage, we will also implement additional integrations for the LocalCart shopping feature (See Figure 2, preliminary one cart integrated agricultural shopping for products, services, and beverages). An integrated shopping cart for agricultural, products, services, experiences, and tickets are lacking in the field. Aionis IO LLC (Please Consultant Letter, Budget Justification) will provide consultant services to implement Application Programming Interface (API) integrations between our commerce platform. The first goal is to provide support for small to mid-size farms in an automated manner so that a farmer's OneCart account is synchronized between purchases and inventory. The second goal here is to program features that enable us to process payments for wine, beer, and cider in ways that comply fully with state and local regulations. We have engaged with Virginia Alcohol and Beverage Authority to determine the feasible protocols for capturing and processing beverage payments.Task 3. Conduct Solutions Interviews: using "A" and "B" App versions with: 1) select consumers from "first-round" interviews, 2) new consumers at business locations, and 3) the small to mid-size farms. We will use surveys to gather data from new consumers and feedback to evaluate the App performance according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Quality Evaluation for Software, ISO/IEC 25010:2011 [49-51].Task 4. Analyze results: according to the methodology in Task 4. Further, we will determine the outcome using success criterion to assess feasibility, including qualitative assessments of the App from customers and farmers. These assess ease of use, convenience, amount of time saved, fun, and whether they will use the App. The surveys that accompany the solutions interviews will provide additional quantitative data to the interview data. We will seek independent evaluation of our success, including from the participating Agricultural Offices. According to the evaluations and our determinations, we will select the App features with the highest performance rating and combine them to further test and develop as one App in Phase II.