HN Explorer

Apply HN: Natch – Localized Farmers and Artisans Marketplace

4 points by omarhegazyy ↗ HN
An online farmer's market where individuals can buy and sell the things they produce to people in their local marketplace. Each locality will have its own local marketplace, and within it, anybody is able to open up a virtual local shop and sell any goods ranging from homegrown fruits and vegetables, to artisanal cheeses and jams, to craft drinks and snacks. As a shopper on the app, I would be able to purchase any of the available goods that were being sold by the independent producers in my local marketplace.

Within each locality, Natch will have a fulfillment center, where it will receive, organize and ship out orders - enabling anybody to do all their shopping from the app, and receive all the goods from the different producers in one shipment.

Why I wanted to make this idea is because I’m somebody who prefers buying goods from independent, local and artisan brands and producers. However, it has been difficult to access and consistently support these brands, because farmer’s markets are infrequent and far from me, and buying products individually from many different online stores can be expensive and inconvenient. There was no common place for any startup food brand to try and sell to me whatever new artisan product they had made. So the idea behind Natch was to create a localized marketplace so that any independent and local producer had an open market where they could sell their goods, and where shoppers could more easily find and support them.

Live Local :)

5 comments

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bestattack
Interesting idea. I'm having the classic reaction that people had to Amazon when it was new (don't people want to shop in person, touch the stuff? what if stuff needs to be bought same day?) - but am not sure if this means you're onto something :).

How would a farmer and a buyer find out about this marketplace?

omarhegazyy
I agree that it may take time for some people to become acclimated to not shopping for things in person. Since this issue seems to revolve around picking produce, we hope that those people will find a myriad of other craft goods(drinks, snacks, cheeses) from Natch until they become more comfortable with the experience. However the growth in companies like Instacart and Amazon fresh, show that the willingness to shop online for food is increasing, and I think this trend will continue as the prices, technology, and options improve.

In regards to finding out about Natch, we plan to start city by city and reach out individually to the farmers and independent brands in the area to help them sell on Natch. In these areas we would have to target the shoppers that traditionally support establishments like farmer's markets and demonstrate that Natch provides them with an easier and better way to shop locally.

Thanks for the questions :)

omarhegazyy
oh and for the same day comment, we plan to ship goods out the day of. Everything a user is able to purchase will already be at a local Natch fulfillment center.
brudgers
What is Natch's advantage to farmers and artisans over existing options?
omarhegazyy
The advantages would be that they will have the ability to sell to more people that traditionally do not have access to their goods. Currently it's difficult to shop locally or from independent brands because farmer's markets aren't frequent or nearby for many, and doing consistent shopping from many independent brands on multiple online stores is inconvenient.

The other main advantage I think Natch provides is that it will be an open marketplace where anybody can sell. If you are a startup food brand or grower, there is no common place to market and sell your products to the people around you. Natch will give these independent sellers the ability to sell directly to the consumers and develop their market without needing to get into stores.

:)