As explained in our ‘Ag Retailer’s Guide to E-commerce’, online selling can feel like an intimidating choice for agribusinesses that have built their reputations on personal relationships.
As well as having a solid understanding of their own needs and capabilities, there are new developments and changes in customer behaviors to keep abreast of too.
Here are six e-commerce trends to help agribusinesses succeed –ensuring solutions deliver on promises in a way that appeals to the people using them.
1. Social media will become even more important
According to DigitalMarketing.org, in 2020, 3.96 billion people around the globe (approximately half the world’s population) spend 144 minutes on social media daily. Those numbers are only expected to rise from there. Retailers that want to succeed online must learn to leverage social media and meet their customers where they already are.
2. Mobile will overtake desktop
Mobile usage accounts for approximately half of web traffic worldwide. When nearly everyone carries a minicomputer in their pockets or purses, they’re poised to buy from anywhere at any time. This applies two-fold for farmers that spend most of their time in the field. Retailers that build their e-commerce platforms with mobile in mind avoid the hassle of translating desktop websites later on.
3. Visual experiences will be driven by data
Every day, people create approximately 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Retailers that use data to inform their e-commerce platforms can create personalized experiences that wow their customers. Access to first-party farmer data across digital channels is invaluable, particularly if the retailer is selling through independent representatives, dealers, or distributors. This type of data about the growers allows retailers to gather important insights about the end user of their products and even predict products customer might want in the future.
