Iowa’s Carousel Farms Relies on E-Commerce

The niche pork producers at Carousel Farms are using the latest e-commerce technology to link their farms near Marcus, Iowa, to consumers from coast to coast.

For nearly four years, John Weber, John Deichmann, and David Wurth have used their Web site, www.carouselfarms.com, to market their specialty chops, ribs, roasts, pork patties, ham and bacon.

“We wanted to find a way to generate more income,” says Deichmann, who runs a wean-to-finish operation and raises a few thousand head per year. “We’ve grown slowly, but our sales have increased every year.”

The men have incorporated a variety of unique features into the site, including a “virtual freezer,” input from well-known Chicago chef Paul Lindemuth, and an online cookbook.

“The Web site has been the main part of our marketing,” Deichmann says. “It cost us a lot of money to set up because some of the programming was pretty complex, but it has helped us sell pork to customers in all 50 states.”

Offering points of distinction
The owners of Carousel Farms use their Web site to explain how their animals are raised in environmentally safe, spacious conditions to protect their health and reduce the need for antibiotics. They also emphasize that their hogs are not given supplemental hormones.

Customers appreciate this, and they also like having a direct link to the farm, Deichmann says.

“When customers call to place an order, a lot are surprised that the guy who answers the phone is also the one who does the chores.”

Carousel Farms uses one federally inspected USDA processor and ships the government-inspected pork directly to customers’ homes via UPS. Customers can pick from standard shipping, second-day air, or next-day air, with shipping fees starting at $9.95.

“Our system provides quality control and gives us a way to track any particular cut of meat back to our farms,” Deichmann says.

Filling the virtual freezer
For customers who want to purchase meat in quantity to capture a larger discount but don’t have enough freezer space to hold it, Carousel Farms also offers a “virtual freezer.”

“The virtual freezer is really a database,” Deichmann says. “When a customer takes delivery of their order, the meat is taken out of our fresh inventory. We don’t have a lot of customers who use the virtual freezer, but it is an option.”

Carousel Farms guarantees all customers they will be 100 percent satisfied with their purchase or they will receive a full refund or replacement of their purchase, whichever they prefer.

“Very few customers have ever used this,” Deichmann says. “When they do it’s usually because UPS made a mistake.”

Meeting the challenges
Learning what it takes to get pork from the farm to the customer’s dinner plate is a big learning curve for any niche marketer, Deichmann says.

“You are challenged to get out of your comfort zone to learn how to deal with customers and build other new skills. While we rely on a programmer to do the most technical work on our Web site, we do quite a few of the updates ourselves.”

Weber, Deichmann and Wurth get together once a week to brainstorm, share progress reports on the different projects they are working on, and discuss solutions for challenges that crop up.

“When we first got into this, the three of us had no idea how complex niche marketing would be,” Deichmann says. “Don’t expect profitability for the first several years.”

And don’t think putting up a Web site will change everything.

“Going online doesn’t mean you’ll be overwhelmed with business,” Deichmann says. “You won’t be an overnight success. Grow slowly, spread the word about your Web site, and learn to expand beyond your comfort zone.”

To contact Carousel Farms, call 888-726-0800. You can also e-mail Deichmann at jedeich@carouselfarms.com.

Producer Feature Archive