AgVend, which partners with almost one-quarter of the U.S. ag input retail market, has released its first ever report to document trends in how this industry is adopting and using digital tools for its business and with customers.
AgVend digital platforms connect ag retail businesses with their customers for agronomy, grain, energy and feed. In 2023 on AgVend platforms, almost 44,000 orders were placed digitally by growers or sales reps to total $1.28 billion dollars.
The report collected information from more than 51 ag retail businesses, which in total have more than 2,000 locations, nearly 3,800 team members using the digital tools, and almost 80,000 active customer users.
Here are three of the many insights. Click here for the full report
1. The digital customers are business drivers.
The AgVend retailer sees a multiple year trajectory in increased adoption, and on average 46% of the customer base of AgVend retailers is engaged digitally. However, those farm businesses represent more than 70% of the retailers’ overall business.
2. It’s beyond point, click and buy.
According to AgVend usage data, one of the first actions customers take on the portal is to pay their bills. For ag retailers, this adds to cost-efficiencies as a traditional mailed payment takes 14 days, and, the average cost to send a paper statement (labor, processing, postage) is $5.78.
And the longer a user is on the platform, the higher their willingness to conduct business digitally.
3. Retail teams who use digital tools are growing their business.
Ag retailer users report using digital tools has sped up their ordering processing by 80%. Additionally, compared to those who are digitally engaged, AgVend teams report increasing product sales and contracting more bushels than before.
