Agricultural products must not only be sold, but sold at a good price
Reading prompt: Not only must they be sold, they must fetch a good price. When "Internet Plus" has given agriculture wings to upgrade and elevate itself, operators in the agricultural sector are also placing ever higher demands on "agriculture on the internet." Delivery points are not fully covered, transport costs are high, there is no good brand, visibility is low, goods "cluster together," and homogeneous competition is severe. The worries of farmers after going online are both progress and a new challenge.
"Use Baidu on the internet, and your products reach millions of households" "Working and running around is not as good as starting a business on Taobao" "Getting rich depends on hard work, running a household frugally depends on JD.com"... After e-commerce companies painted these slogans on rural walls, farmers in Liaoning Province began to respond.
On "Yimutian," a mobile app specially designed to match farmers with buyers for transactions, Kang Shengying, a farmer from Linghai City, Jinzhou, promoted his own watermelons like this: "The melons are definitely good melons. I'm not afraid you won't buy them, I'm only afraid you won't be able to get them."
Zheng Shitou from Xinmin City, Shenyang, placed several cut watermelons in a field of vivid green melons; the photo he took looks sweet just to look at.
Zhu Fengyi from Dexing Town, Xifeng County, Tieling City, posted an invitation in his online shop: "123 apples" will soon be on the market. Wholesalers are welcome to come and buy. Farm meals and a farm courtyard, food and lodging included!
With improved internet access and the spread of smartphones, more and more farmers are "moving" their own agricultural products onto the internet.
Difficulty one: Good fruit goes online but does not sell at a good price
A week ago, at the home of Lu Yunsheng, a villager in Yandian Township, Wafangdian City, Dalian, a special guest came -- the manager of the Northeast Region for an e-commerce platform, hoping Lu Yunsheng could supply goods over the long term.
Yandian Township is rich in fruit. The quality of nectarines, yellow peaches and apples is all quite good, but it often faces the problem of unsold stock. Last summer, yellow peaches were not selling well, so Lu Yunsheng took photos of his family's yellow peaches and posted them online. As a result, a canned food production company in Jiangsu quickly found him. After looking at the photos, they made a phone call and ordered 50 tonnes of yellow peaches. Since his own family did not have that much, Lu Yunsheng loaded up yellow peaches from several nearby farming households as well. He sold his own yellow peaches and also earned 5,000 yuan in agency fees. This order gave Lu Yunsheng far too much inspiration.
Dalian is a well-known yellow peach production area. Every August, canned food production companies from all over come to Dalian to purchase, but many people head directly to Jinzhou District, which has a big reputation and ample supply. Selling the same yellow peaches, Yandian Township's products are no worse and the price is cheaper, but because canned food production companies do not know much about it, they rarely come to buy. After seeing the business opportunity brought by this information asymmetry, Lu Yunsheng "shouted loudly" on the internet. After selling yellow peaches, he sold apples; after selling his own family's, he sold those of surrounding farming households. In one winter he sold nearly 300 tonnes of apples.
Today, 39-year-old Lu Yunsheng has become a well-known fruit broker in Yandian Township. Farmers looking to sell fruit come to him, and companies coming to buy fruit come to him, and he is also happy to post some messages online to look for possible buyers to work with. His shop registered under his real name on "Yimutian" has reached more than 4,700 views, and in the past month alone 170 people have contacted him.
However, although this well-known seller has made a splash online, he has also encountered many practical problems in real-world operations. "Logistics are too troublesome. Delivery companies still have not set up agency points here. Every time I ship goods, I have to contact the delivery company and ask them to send a vehicle to load the goods."
Lu Yunsheng is very anxious about the delivery issue. He especially hopes several delivery companies will set up agency points locally, so that competition can lower logistics costs a bit, and then he could also take some small-volume orders.
Another feeling Lu Yunsheng has is that no brand has been established, so good things cannot sell at a good price. "In terms of brand awareness, the gap is too big. There is no problem with the quality of our fruit, but its reputation is not there. There was once a merchant from Shandong who came specially to buy Red Fuji apples from us, shipped them back and put a Yantai Fuji label on them, and the price immediately rose by one yuan." Lu Yunsheng especially hopes someone can organize the farming households of Yandian Township, achieve standardized planting, build their own brand, and let good fruit sell at a good price.
Difficulty two: After going online, homogeneous competition also arrives
The Zhu father and daughter in Dexing Town, Xifeng County, sell apples on an APP platform and encounter a price war.
Zhu Caiyun and Zhu Fengyi are a father-daughter team. The daughter, Little Zhu, who attended university, is responsible for online promotion, while the father, Old Zhu, organizes supply at home in Dexing Town, Xifeng County. Last year, the two tested the waters and sold a total of 150 tonnes of apples from beginning to end. This year, Zhu Caiyun got involved early and began preselling online before the apples were even harvested: "Every July and August, tens of thousands of tonnes of apples in this village await sale. You are welcome to come and buy!"
Compared with other sellers, the Zhu father and daughter face greater difficulties selling apples online. Not only is there no logistics support, they cannot even prepare packaging boxes for customers. In the product description, Zhu Caiyun specifically noted that "buyers must bring their own transport vehicle and packaging boxes."
Old Zhu said: "Xifeng is full of original ecological things. Even a breath of air is fresher than in the city. The temperature difference between day and night here is large. Apples that look the same taste better than other people's. No one who comes here to inspect the goods leaves with an empty truck."
There is no problem with the quality of the apples, and the online promotion is also done vigorously, but after going online the father and daughter still encountered unexpected difficulties. In Kaiyuan City, right next to Xifeng, someone was also promoting apples of the same variety on the same platform, asking 2 jiao less per kilogram.
Reality is just this cruel. When you use the internet to solve the problem of information asymmetry, before you can improve logistics, after-sales service and other services, homogeneous competition has already begun, and a price war has even been started on the APP platform.
Putting agricultural products online only solves the problem of information asymmetry, letting more people know you have such good things and how to contact you. But after going online, you must face new challenges. At this time, online sales techniques such as holding activities, building a brand, and telling stories become very important.
Difficulty three: No cold storage and lack of sales skills
Lin Tianbao, a farmer in Fengcheng City, Dandong, also encountered the problem of homogeneous competition, and the level of challenge was even higher. Lin Tianbao said that in this season the village's main product is Huangguniang, and because there is no cold storage or other preservation equipment, there are only 20 days to sell after harvesting. Field buyers seize on farmers' anxiety to sell and push prices down desperately; farmers selling Huangguniang to them is almost a loss.
Lin Tianbao hoped to use the internet to open another outlet, but after going online he had to compete with a large number of sellers from Heilongjiang. His scale was not as big as theirs, and his reputation was not as great as theirs either.
Facing the test of what to do after agricultural products go online, 29-year-old Lin Tianbao actively responded in two aspects. On the one hand, he runs an online shop with the concept of reputation first and sincere service, ensuring high-quality supply and reasonable prices. His real-name shop on "Yimutian" has currently received 14 reviews, all positive. On the other hand, he strengthened his promotion ability, shooting videos and telling stories. In his shop there is a passage introducing Huangguniang: grown deep in the mountains, harvesting completed before 8 a.m., with the skin air-dried in a cool, ventilated room, paired with videos of local farmers carefully harvesting. Every detail is captivating.
Lin Tianbao's efforts have achieved some results, and he occasionally receives some online orders, but the local problem of Huangguniang being "low-priced and hard to sell" has not been fundamentally solved.
Regarding this fierce competition after agricultural products go online, Lin Tianbao hopes to receive professional support. In terms of hardware, the relevant parties would do best to support farmers in building some cold storage, so that prices will not be controlled by field buyers; otherwise, farmers work hard for most of the year, yet the money is watched helplessly as it is all earned by middlemen. In terms of online sales skills, Lin Tianbao hopes to receive some professional training, preferably covering some practical cases. Although agricultural products are hung online, not many people know about them. How to get people who want to buy to notice them involves too much knowledge.