There's a Knack to Agricultural Input Retailing: Integrate Products and Offer Packages
What does an agricultural input shop look like? “Disorderly displays of goods and promotional flyers plastered all over the walls.” That is the impression most farmers have of agricultural input shops. Many shopkeepers who have been in the agricultural input business for years also admit, “The shop already has so many goods, and when the busy farming season comes, we are so focused on helping farmers choose products, who has time to tidy up?” But this situation does not exist in Ma Shihai's agricultural input shop in Minggang Town, Pingqiao District, Xinyang City.
This shop is a bit “different”
Compared with supermarkets and other shops on the street, Ma Shihai's agricultural input shop is not large, but it is clean and neat inside, and the entrance is swept spotless. On the glass counter at the entrance sits a computer, and various pesticide products are neatly arranged inside the counter and on the shelves behind it. On the other side of the shop is the fertilizer area, where several different fertilizers are placed, and this is only the display area for fertilizer products; large quantities of fertilizer are stored in the warehouse behind the shop.
Regarding the layout of the shop, Ma Shihai explained that although he has only been selling agricultural input products for three years, from the very beginning he was determined to make a change, to make his agricultural input shop different from the disorderly chaos of ordinary shops. A clean and tidy shop not only improves his own working environment, but farmers also highly approve of this kind of “formal” setup.
Offering Packages: A Knack for Agricultural Input Newcomers
Minggang Town has a large population and a large area of cultivated land, mainly growing crops such as wheat, corn, rice and peanuts. Ma Shihai explained that although the cultivated land area is large and the demand for agricultural input products is great, because few high-value crops are grown locally, farmers' ability to bear the prices of agricultural input products is limited. For many agricultural input products, farmers have mixed feelings, loving the quality yet “hating” the price. Sinochem chelated fertilizer encountered exactly this situation. Farmers trust the brand and quality of Sinochem fertilizers, and through use they have also seen the actual effects of chelated fertilizer, yet they are deterred by its relatively high price.
Ma Shihai's agricultural input shop is relatively complete in agricultural input products ranging from seeds and chemical fertilizers to pesticides, so he combined the products and sold them in the form of packages. In this way, farmers got a certain price discount, and Ma Shihai also gained stable customers and product sales. “As long as you pay part of the deposit, you can pre-order all the agricultural input products needed for the whole season. Not only is the total price somewhat lower, but the fees are also paid in installments. The effect is quite good.” Ma Shihai said.