Omnichannel solution for Family Farm & Home
About the Client
Family Farm & Home is a family-owned and operated company, founded in 2002 by Al Fansler, his son Tim Fansler and son-in-law Bob Tarrant, with a focus on providing outstanding customer service to every community served.
Based in Muskegon, MI and currently operating 65 stores throughout five midwestern states, Family Farm & Home has experienced significant growth since opening its first three locations in 2002. Customer service is a top priority for Family Farm & Home with the mission to treat customers like family and to help them work smarter and faster by providing the best quality products and expert advice to get the job done, at prices that make sense.
Core departments include feed and accessories for pets, horses and livestock, as well as farming supplies. The chain also offers products for home heating, lawn and garden, hardware, automotive, work clothing, footwear, and more.
Family Farm & Home’s mission is to build a family dedicated to providing exceptional service, products, and prices focused on fulfilling the lifestyle needs of their customers who aspire to Live, Work & Grow like they do.
The Challenge
As customer needs have evolved, merchants need an omnichannel solution. Family Farm & Home knew how important it was to improve their website experience to meet those expectations. At the beginning of 2020, the marketing and website teams agreed that the customer experience was in need of improvement and made this project a top priority. As the global pandemic situation evolved, it became profoundly more evident that options like curbside pickup were no longer optional, but necessary to service their customers.
The goals of the project were:
Improve the customer site experience, including options like Buy-online-pickup-in-store.
Allow flexibility to pursue future endeavors, such as ship-to-home fulfillment options, in a way that is economical and logistically manageable for a mid-size retailer.
Streamline the operational side of fulfillment so that stores can continue to provide excellent customer service.
Align inventory and store-specific pricing with ERP and POS (Epicor Eagle).
Begin the digital transformation in a strategically planned manner, breaking down the project into steps that allow steady growth.
The Solution
Family Farm & Home decided upon Magento Commerce Cloud and Magento Order Manager as the platforms to scale their business, implemented by Magento solution partner Creatuity. While an interim buy-online-pickup-in-store option was introduced in April due to the pandemic, the new site project continued. Rolling out the new systems gradually in September allowed the stores to learn how to fulfill orders in a realistic timeframe, as well as provided ample opportunity to thoroughly test the user experience, gather customer feedback and streamline operations.
Today the 65 stores have access to easy-to-use dashboards in Magento Order Manager to pick items, and manage the pickup of items. Store associates loved the easy ability to learn the new system and start fulfilling orders right away. Automated emails keep the customer informed on the status of in-store-pickup orders. Over ten thousand products have been added to the site for pickup, with more planned. Customer Service agents can assist customers easily through the streamlined processes. Additionally, physical Gift Cards were introduced in the holiday season, and the new system allows customers to ship directly to a gift recipient.
Our BOPIS project was a big project and it became an even bigger one in light of the global pandemic. Creatuity was incredibly flexible and creative in helping us fill our new customer need of curbside pickup in a very short time. They were able to launch that in addition to working on the main BOPIS project. We are extremely excited we found a partner who understands what it means to serve your customers particularly during tough times.
Jaime Shafer, E-Commerce Content Specialist
