Shoppers who can't be bothered to walk to their local market can breathe a sigh of relief with the launch of the world's first virtual farmers' market.
Set up by entrepreneurs Marcus Carter and Roger Saunt, Virtual Farmer's Market is a website where shoppers can visit a 3D market and order products.
The market has 50 producer stalls, with each showcasing six products. Shoppers click on the stall and are shown a 90-second clip of the sellers pitching their product. They are then able to make a purchase. Visitors not wanting to navigate the market can instead select from a list of products.
Carter and Saunt aim to generate sales of £5m within three years of VFM's launch, making 500 deliveries a day.
Goods will be couriered to shoppers via a depot in Canary Wharf, although orders will be subject to a £35 to £40 minimum spend and a hefty £12 delivery fee.
Rod & Ben's Soups, Sillfield Farm, Burnt Sugar, Patchwork Foods, Dave's Chilli Oil, the Carved Angel and Chase Distillery are among the first producers to have signed up to exhibit at the market.
Shoppers are able to use the site and order from this week, but deliveries will not commence until the new year.
While there were some so-called 'virtual' farmers market websites already established, they were simply "a list of 60 producers that some food writer thought were their 60 friends", said Carter. In contrast VFM actually allows the shopper to browse through a virtual market that had been built with Unity, a web-based tool used to develop computer games.
The site aimed to appeal to consumers who already shopped online rather than trying to convert those who did not, said Carter.
"The online food trade has tried to build its online business with the wrong consumer base. Rather than convert foot shoppers, why not target just online shoppers? If we can take the product and story out into the marketplace, that's what people want to see and hear."
Set up by entrepreneurs Marcus Carter and Roger Saunt, Virtual Farmer's Market is a website where shoppers can visit a 3D market and order products.
The market has 50 producer stalls, with each showcasing six products. Shoppers click on the stall and are shown a 90-second clip of the sellers pitching their product. They are then able to make a purchase. Visitors not wanting to navigate the market can instead select from a list of products.
Carter and Saunt aim to generate sales of £5m within three years of VFM's launch, making 500 deliveries a day.
Goods will be couriered to shoppers via a depot in Canary Wharf, although orders will be subject to a £35 to £40 minimum spend and a hefty £12 delivery fee.
Rod & Ben's Soups, Sillfield Farm, Burnt Sugar, Patchwork Foods, Dave's Chilli Oil, the Carved Angel and Chase Distillery are among the first producers to have signed up to exhibit at the market.
Shoppers are able to use the site and order from this week, but deliveries will not commence until the new year.
While there were some so-called 'virtual' farmers market websites already established, they were simply "a list of 60 producers that some food writer thought were their 60 friends", said Carter. In contrast VFM actually allows the shopper to browse through a virtual market that had been built with Unity, a web-based tool used to develop computer games.
The site aimed to appeal to consumers who already shopped online rather than trying to convert those who did not, said Carter.
"The online food trade has tried to build its online business with the wrong consumer base. Rather than convert foot shoppers, why not target just online shoppers? If we can take the product and story out into the marketplace, that's what people want to see and hear."
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