It’s not either or says Pat Sullivan, vice president of partner success at AgVend.
“It’s not a separate channel. It’s not online versus offline. People want to access you in a number of different ways. Think of digitalization as a way to strengthen their core business, make it easier for their customers to reach them, and it can improve those relationships,” he says.
Join him for this conversation about how farmers want to access information and purchasing opportunities for ag inputs in many ways—online and in person. Sullivan shares some success stories of how ag retailers have digitized their business and why he thinks double as many retailers will have an online offering this time next year.
You can hear the full interview on The Scoop podcast:
Sullivan has been at AgVend for four years, which of course includes the company’s pivot from being an online marketplace to focusing on white label digital portals connecting ag retailers to their farmer customers.
“Our goal is to provide our partners a world class experience for their customers and for their teams,” Sullivan says. “We have to have a deep understanding of their business and vested interest in their success.”
Sullivan says AgVend invests in onboarding its ag retail partners to ensure a successful adoption of the portals across their business divisions: agronomy, grain and energy.
“This digital enablement platform means it connects all their different systems, ERP finance, agronomy, and for cooperatives grain and energy and feed as well. And so on top being a grower portal, there are a bunch of tools for the retailer’s sales team like CRM, and marketing,” Sullivan says.
Digitizing the business of ag retailers has been a stretch, and Sullivan says the AgVend team respects the ways they are asking ag retailers to change.
“I think one of the favorite pieces of feedback I’ve received from one of our partners is that our team has at times made them uncomfortable– they have felt like we are pushing them outside of their comfort zone, helping them expand what they do, and change the way that they work,” he says.
From the farmer perspective, e-commerce in agriculture shouldn’t just mean point, click, buy Sullivan says.
“Look back five years ago, the narrative around doing business online within agriculture was all about buying low cost inputs from online only providers. I think that was a really limiting experience in terms of what producers do digitally. They didn’t have the ability to work with suppliers that they already had great relationships with. and we know that that’s extremely important right in the industry. And so that’s starting to change, and ag retailers are starting to engage their business online, making it easier for their customers to do business with them.”
Sullivan says he’s seen how this approach can help teams do more, connect different systems to streamline workflows and improve their business.
