The core of competition in seed e-commerce lies in service
In July, from some traditional agricultural materials information websites, to traditional agricultural materials enterprises setting up e-commerce platforms, and then to e-commerce giants entering the agricultural materials industry, the wave has come one after another. With the launch of Taobao's agricultural materials channel and the launch of “Nongshang No. 1,” “Internet + agricultural materials” platforms are increasing day by day. On one hand, the internet industry, which has always been good at discovering opportunities in time, began to take action several years ago, and now some areas of “Internet + agricultural materials” have even shown signs of a “red ocean.”
On the other hand, when the reporter opened online seed stores, many shops had “zero transactions.” Even on the cloud farm platform created by a certain seed enterprise, seeds were not taken as the core business at the beginning; instead, the focus was placed on fertilizer sales, and the main transactions were completed offline.
It is estimated that the market space for China's four major categories of agricultural materials - seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural machinery - is about 350 billion yuan, 750 billion yuan, 380 billion yuan and 600 billion yuan respectively. Although seeds account for less than 1/5, due to their particularity, they have become a hot spot and a difficult point in agricultural materials e-commerce.
Can e-commerce change the seed market sales and service model, and to what extent can it change it?
Recently, the reporter conducted a user survey on the “Farmer's Daily · Modern Seed Industry” WeChat public platform and interviewed some large-scale growers.
Survey results
34% of respondents use e-commerce as a price comparison tool, and 27% would buy through e-commerce
The survey set questions in seven aspects: respondent age, main crops grown, region, respondent identity, planting scale, seed purchasing channels and views on e-commerce. The number of participants was 79.
In the survey on seed purchasing channels, only 13% chose to buy online, while all the rest used traditional channels, among which county and township dealers accounted for 50%, direct supply from manufacturers accounted for 16%, self-breeding accounted for 11%, and unified seed supply by supply and marketing cooperatives accounted for 8%.
The survey shows that e-commerce has a great impact on farmers' purchasing methods. 34% chose to use e-commerce as a price comparison tool, and another 27% chose to buy online. In addition, 21% chose to wait and see, buying only after others had proved there was no problem, and 15% chose not to consider buying through e-commerce.
Li Xiaolong, a new farmer born in 1990 in Gaotang County, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, manages 400 mu of land, most of which is planted with wheat and sweet potatoes, and part with pear trees and peanuts. “E-commerce platforms are my first choice for selling agricultural products, but I would not consider using them to buy seeds.”
In this survey, participants were mostly concentrated between the ages of 20 and 49, among whom those aged 30 to 39 accounted for 32%, those aged 20 to 29 and those aged 40 to 49 each accounted for a share, and the remaining 11% were users over 50. This shows that WeChat users' ages are mostly concentrated between 20 and 49.
The survey on main crops grown was a multiple-choice question, with 168 clicks in total. The three major staple grains accounted for 63%, with corn, wheat and rice at 36%, 19% and 8% respectively. In addition, 11% chose vegetables. Wheat and corn accounted for 55%, which is related to the fact that 71% of participants were located in Northeast China and North China, among whom Northeast China accounted for 20% and North China 51%. In addition, 10% of users were in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
In the survey on respondent identity, 24% were seed enthusiasts, while in the survey on seed scale, 17% were for leisure and entertainment. In the question of whether they would buy online, 27% of users chose “yes,” which indicates that planting enthusiasts may be more inclined to buy seeds and seedlings online.
Large-scale growers
Buying seeds is not like buying clothes or shoes. Clothes and shoes can show whether they are good or bad, but seeds are hard to judge until they are planted in the ground
Among the survey results, large-scale growers, cooperative members and family farm-scale operating entities accounted for 30%, ordinary farmers accounted for 32%, and planting enthusiasts and scientific researchers accounted for 24% and 11% respectively. Those with a planting scale below 50 mu accounted for 48%, those with 50 to 300 mu accounted for 21%, and those with more than 300 mu accounted for 12%. From these two results, it can be seen that the number of scale operators and the number of mu they chose to operate basically match. Large-scale operating entities such as large-scale growers are high-quality customer resources for both seed e-commerce and seed enterprises. How do they view seed e-commerce? The reporter contacted some large-scale growers.
The planting projects of the Hubei Liangnonggu Planting and Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative Union mainly include rice seedling-raising factories and commercial rice planting. The annual seedling-raising service area exceeds 10,000 mu, and the union operates 1,125 mu of transferred land. Liu Yingwen, chairman of the union, said: “All seedling-raising factories in Jianli County have joined forces to form a ‘joint purchase and separate supply’ model for agricultural materials procurement. For the agricultural materials demand of more than 40 seedling-raising factories covering tens of thousands of mu, agricultural materials suppliers will provide very high-quality service. The seeds we purchase are all well-known brands, and both quality and service are guaranteed.
“Buying seeds is not like buying clothes or shoes. Clothes and shoes can show whether they are good or bad, but seeds are hard to judge until they are planted in the ground.” said Shao Aixu, chairman of the Ainong Agricultural Technology Service Professional Cooperative in Rudong County, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province. He planted 800 mu of land, all under a rotation of japonica rice and wheat, and generally buys seeds from well-known seed companies. He said: “Many large-scale growers were engaged in agricultural machinery or agricultural materials distribution before choosing transferred land, so they have some channels to manufacturers themselves.”
The Yijia Grain Planting Professional Cooperative in Guoshu Town, Funing County, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province operates 20,000 mu of land under a rotation of rice and wheat. Half of the land produces seeds for seed companies, and the other half grows commercial grain. Wang Youbao, chairman of the cooperative, said: “For field crops like rice, especially when the planting area is large, it is actually very simple. You can buy directly from seed companies without going through intermediate links.”
E-commerce platforms
The key difference between agricultural materials e-commerce and other e-commerce is that service is the core, and both online and offline are indispensable. Offline delivery and planting services are particularly important
User thinking is the core of internet thinking. Agricultural materials e-commerce has already targeted the pain point of the last kilometer and is running at full speed.
Two-thirds of the strawberry seedlings bought by a Taobao buyer from a Taobao shop owner in Shuyang rotted and died. Through coordination among Taobao, the local government and the merchant, the full payment was refunded to the buyer within 2 days.
This is the actual practice of Shuyang, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, in resolving disputes between buyers and sellers of seeds and seedlings. In order to solve Taobao buyers' worries about buying seeds, Shuyang conducted a unified verification and registration of nearly 3,000 Taobao online stores for forest tree seeds and seedlings within the county, and established a “Flower and Tree Seed and Seedling Online Trading Integrity Fund.” According to Gu Yu, deputy county magistrate of Shuyang County, the fund will be used for verified and registered Taobao sellers of flowers, trees and home gardening. When a transaction dispute with a buyer causes losses and compensation cannot be paid in time, the fund will initiate compensation to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible.
Online, according to reports, Taobao has also formulated strict access standards for agricultural materials sellers and a review mechanism for the release of agricultural materials products, which will be launched in the near future. At that time, when releasing products in the three categories of seeds, pesticides and veterinary drugs, registration certificate numbers will need to be provided, and Taobao will verify them against the database of the agricultural department. Only when the registration certificate number, pictures and description are consistent can they pass the review and be released. At the same time, Taobao agricultural materials will vigorously support high-quality sellers. Sellers who provide agricultural materials business licenses can obtain priority support from platform resources.
Aizhongwang takes direct operation by manufacturers as a way to address farmers' concerns about seed quality, and provides professional full-process technical guidance after selling seeds. Aizhongwang's own advantage is that it was jointly invested and established by 11 key seed industry enterprises, including Longping High-Tech, Beidahuang Kenfeng and China Seed Group, as well as the Modern Seed Industry Development Fund. At present, crop seed products from 14 seed enterprises, including Anhui Longping, Kenfeng Seed Industry, China Seed, Golden Nonghua and Fengle Seed Industry, have settled in, which solves the safety problem of seed supply channels. According to Wang Weiwen, CEO of Aizhongwang, Aizhongwang is committed to opening up the information flow of the agricultural materials industry. It is currently building a trading, interaction and service platform that integrates all links of the agricultural materials industry. Through big data analysis, it can provide differentiated and customized seed purchase guidance and choices for farmers in different regions.
Fan Tianyang, director of JD.com's Agricultural Materials E-commerce Department, introduced that the key difference between agricultural materials e-commerce and other e-commerce is that service is the core, and online and offline are both indispensable. In particular, offline delivery and planting services are especially important. JD.com's advantage in entering the agricultural materials industry lies in its complete logistics and distribution centers, while what it lacks is professional agricultural technology extension workers and excellent agricultural materials products such as seeds, pesticides and fertilizers. For this reason, JD.com cooperated with Kingenta to build the Nongshang No. 1 agricultural materials platform.
Noposion's agricultural e-commerce platform “Tiantianquan” also takes the last-kilometer service problem as its breakthrough point. “Tiantianquan” is equipped with a service team of more than 200 authoritative agricultural experts. Noposion has 300 experience stores and 1,000 service delivery points nationwide, and can provide agricultural growers with full-chain services from seeds to fertilization, pest control, agricultural product sales, insurance and more.
Where are the advantages of e-commerce?
When e-commerce enters rural areas, farmers can obtain richer materials through online shopping, and what they value is being able to sell their own products. When e-commerce meets seeds, it also encounters the difficulties of the seed industry. What it needs to do is also to transform from selling seeds to providing services, and to provide technical solutions for the entire planting process.
Where are the advantages of the internet in providing services?
Information is more transparent. As the number of purchasing users increases, it can be seen online which products are more popular, and it can even be precise down to products that perform better in the user's region. This is the internet's own gene. It provides more information references for farmers buying seeds and increases the ways farmers understand product information. This is also the reason why, in the survey, 32% chose to use e-commerce as a price comparison tool.
Service is more timely. The internet brings a flattened world. Through the internet, farmers can cross many gaps and achieve interconnection, which makes timely technical service possible. For example, the mobile app “Nongyisheng,” which focuses on providing technical services to farmers, allows farmers to directly send seed problems they encounter to the platform through pictures, text and other information. Experts from various fields will provide answers, and the Nongyisheng platform will provide references for farmers in choosing solutions through expert classification. This provides farmers with timely and convenient service.
Resources are more integrated. In traditional rural society, a shopping method called “going to the market” was popular. This going to the market was truly going to the market: riding a bike several kilometers to the town or county. Especially before major festivals such as the Spring Festival, walking around the rural market was truly lively, packed with people shoulder to shoulder. If we talk about consumer experience, this consumer experience might not receive “positive reviews.” What the internet can do is one-stop direct delivery to farmers' homes, whether for consumer goods or means of production, and even more so for convenient service resources. The internet's resource integration effect is not only its one-stop service; here farmers become truly the customer as god, receiving service without any discount.
Quality is more reliable. Here it refers to the model of brand operation and manufacturer direct-sale outlets. Let me give an example of my own. Before I went to university, whenever my family was going to buy seeds, especially wheat seeds, they would partner with neighbors to go to a farther seed market and buy several large bags back, valuing the cheapness of wholesale. In recent years, perhaps because I have never left agriculture whether in school or at work, when my relatives and neighbors see me, most ask whether I can find some reliable, big-brand varieties for our hometown. Last year when I returned home, I saw two exquisite red iron boxes on the coffee table. I thought they were tea, but when I picked them up, they turned out to be corn seeds of a certain well-known brand. E-commerce's brand operation and manufacturer direct-sale stores can maximize satisfaction of farmers' demand for this. In the future, what I recommend to everyone may be a certain e-commerce platform, and people can directly buy brands they trust.
“Internet + seeds,” bring the advantages of the internet, target the difficult problems of the seed market, and please bring truly technical services to farmers. Only after solving farmers' concerns will farmers fall in love with you.