How Agricultural Enterprises Choose the Right Sales Channel for Agricultural Products
“Export determines entry.” If we can solve the export problem, we will certainly be able to solve the entry problem. If our products have an audience, then the upstream is relatively easy to solve. But what is the reality? Often the upstream has grown the crops, but cannot sell them, branded products cannot be sold, and the price cannot compare with the product. This is actually due to a mismatch of channels. A branded product chooses a channel meant for non-branded products, making it difficult for the product to be supplied and sold within that channel. How many channels are there for agricultural products, what is the current state of each channel, and what development trends will there be in the future?
We have divided them into wholesale, supermarkets, catering, specialty stores, e-commerce, membership systems, deep processing and other areas. The current state of agricultural product channels can be described with words like scattered and chaotic. The degree of deep processing of agricultural products across China is relatively low, channels are relatively diverse, and it is rather bewildering for enterprises to choose. Traditional channels are mainly wholesale and the like, which offer no advantage compared with ordinary vendors. Supermarket channels have a relatively large total volume, but there are many restrictions within them, and there are many hidden loss loopholes.
The wholesale model is very simple: production areas circulate to distribution centers, then to farmers' markets and restaurants, and finally to consumers. At present, the entire wholesale channel is dividing. On the one hand, there is differentiation of channels, and some high-end fruit specialty stores have also begun to come to wholesale markets to stock up. Some merchants in wholesale markets are also dividing, and many have transformed to actively visit downstream customers and offer downstream customers choices. After going out, these distributors can be transformed into operators of branded agriculture.
Supermarkets are undoubtedly a good platform for displaying agricultural products. Whether primary processed products or deeply processed products, branded products are appearing more and more on this stage. Supermarkets have the characteristics of scale, chain operation and intensification, and are relatively suitable for the sales of our branded products. The entry threshold for supermarkets is relatively high, and the requirements for the operating entity's operational capability and organization are very high.
The third is the catering channel. Catering is a major channel for consuming agricultural products. This channel has many gray chains, is relatively difficult, and most enterprises do not have such capability, so the risk is relatively high.
Using internet thinking to make channel choices means deciding what kind of channel model the enterprise should adopt to complete product sales based on consumers' habits combined with the enterprise's own resources. If an enterprise has a very high degree of scale but a relatively low degree of refinement, it is suggested that such an enterprise be defined as a professional supplier of a certain raw material and cooperate deeply with the next enterprise. If the enterprise is relatively large in scale, relatively high in refinement, and its target consumers are mainly urban residents, then for this form it is suggested to choose supermarket channels first. If the enterprise is not large in scale, but the regional characteristics of its products are relatively obvious, such an enterprise is more suitable for operating a specialty store model. If the product can, through planning, tell a story and cater to consumers' psychology, it can be sold through online activities on the internet, and can even be presold.