Making Products More Accessible Using Sliding Scale on GrownBy

Making Products More Accessible Using Sliding Scale on GrownBy

Making Products More Accessible Using Sliding Scale on GrownBy


GrownBy supports sliding scale/tiers. Read on to learn more about how to set up your standard/a la carte products and shares for sliding scale purchasing. We have a video about making CSA Shares more accessible here. In this article, we will use the terms tiers and sliding scale interchangeably.


What is a sliding scale?

Sliding scale pricing is a form of mutual aid that recognizes that price is a barrier to access. Sliding scale pricing generally relies on the customer to self-determine what price level is appropriate for them. Using a sliding scale can ensure that the food you sell is priced inclusively for those struggling to access farm food. Some farms set up sliding scales where the upper income shares directly fund the lower income shares. Other farms might cover the price discrepancy with donations or grants.


Communicating about your Sliding Scale


It is very useful to give clear guidance to customers to help them understand which income level they should use. You see some wonderful examples of non-financial tier recommendations at Rock Steady Farm, Phillies Bridge Farm Project. Other farms or CSA groups use cost of living calculators (such as MIT’s) to give clear financial suggestions for choosing a tier.

Naming Products that will be Sold by Sliding Scale


Sliding scale pricing is a form of mutual aid that recognizes that price is a barrier to access. Sliding scale pricing generally relies on the customer to self-determine what price level is appropriate for them. Using a sliding scale can ensure that the food you sell is priced inclusively for those struggling to access farm food. Some farms set up sliding scales where the upper income shares directly fund the lower income shares. Other farms might cover the price discrepancy with donations or grants. Some farms have significantly lower priced share that is only available to members using SNAP at checkout.

Sliding Scale for Shares


Using Share Templates, you can set-up sliding scale options for subscriptions, too. Templates are for products that are the same but which have some attribute that is different like price.

To read a thorough description of templates and how to use them, read this article. Once you have templates setup, customers will see the individual product names at checkout like this:


However, in the public-facing distribution report (Sign-in sheets), even though one share is at Standard Price and one share is at Sustainer Price, it looks like this:



Sliding scale for a la carte items


You can use buying options to set your various prices for each product. In the product editing screen, add as many buying options as you have price levels. You can choose to append “Sliding Scale” or similar language to the product name, the description, or the buying options themselves. We recommend adding “sliding scale” to the buying option names so that it is very clear why there is a range of prices for the same product.

Here is what the product editing screen looks like:

The shop view looks like this:






Still have questions? We have answers. Email GrownBy support directly at support@grownby.app, or schedule a one-on-one call with one of our team members. A real human with farming experience will get back to you as soon as possible!


 


    • Related Articles

    • Bulk Editing - Products

      It is possible to edit multiple products at once in the GrownBy dashboard. You may want to take advantage of this feature to speed up your workflows when editing, hiding, or deleting products. You can edit the following fields through bulk editing: ...
    • All about Standard Products

      Types of products in GrownBy In GrownBy, there are three types of Products: Standard: A product in your shop that is available as a stand-alone item. While Standard products can be ordered for multiple dates simultaneously, they are not a ...
    • Digital Products

      On GrownBy, there are three types of Products: Standard, Subscription, and Digital. There is also a specific Digital Product for Farm Credit. This article covers Digital Products and their uses. You might want to use a Digital Product if: You want ...
    • Importing Products Into GrownBy From Other Software

      Importing products into GrownBy from another sales platform We have received many requests to import products into GrownBy, and we are happy to assist you with this task. As a note, we generally do not recommend importing customer lists to GrownBy as ...
    • How to use GrownBy for different CSA types, including Custom

      Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share types have evolved significantly over the years and we see many innovations. Farmers use the phrase “CSA” and its framework to describe all kinds of selling strategies. With this chart, we aim to help you ...