Seed e-commerce is a service.

In July, from some traditional agricultural information websites, to traditional agricultural enterprises setting up e-commerce platforms, and then to e-commerce giants entering the agricultural materials industry, the boom came one after another. with the launch of Taobao Agricultural material Channel and the launch of "Agricultural Merchant No.1", "Internet + Agricultural material" platform is increasing day by day. On the one hand, the Internet industry, which has always been good at finding opportunities in time, began to take action several years ago. Today, some areas of "Internet + agricultural materials" have even shown signs of the "Red Sea".

On the other hand, when the reporter opened the online seed store, many stores were "zero deal", that is, on the cloud farm platform created by a seed enterprise, they did not regard seeds as the core business at the beginning of their foundation, but focused on the sales of chemical fertilizer, and the main transaction was completed offline.

It is estimated that the market space of seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural machinery in China is about 350 billion yuan, 750 billion yuan, 380 billion yuan and 600 billion yuan respectively. Although seeds only account for less than 1 percent, but because of their particularity, it has become a hot and difficult point for agricultural e-commerce.

Can e-commerce change and to what extent can it change the mode of selling services in the seed market?

A few days ago, the reporter conducted a user survey on the Wechat public platform of the "Farmer Daily Modern seed Industry" and interviewed some big growers.

Survey results

34% of the respondents used e-commerce as a price comparison tool, and 27% would buy it through e-commerce.

The survey set questions on seven aspects: age, main crops, region, identity, planting scale, purchasing channels and views on e-commerce. The number of participants was 79.

In the survey of purchasing channels, only 13% chose to buy online, and the rest were all traditional channels, including 50% for county and township dealers, 16% for direct supply from manufacturers, 11% for self-propagation, and 8% for unified seed supply by supply and marketing cooperatives.

The survey shows that e-commerce has a great influence on the way farmers buy. 34% chose e-commerce as a tool for price comparison, while another 27% chose to buy online. In addition, 21% chose to wait and see and wait for others to prove that there was no problem before buying, and 15% chose not to consider e-commerce purchases.

Li Xiaolong, a new farmer born in 1990 in Gaotang County, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, manages 400 mu of land, most of which grow wheat and sweet potatoes, and some grow pear trees and peanuts. "the e-commerce platform is my first choice for selling agricultural products, but I won't consider using it to buy seeds."

In this survey, most of the participants are between the ages of 20 and 49, of which 32% of the people aged 30 and 39 are aged 20-29 and 40-49, and the remaining 11% are users over the age of 50. This shows that the ages of Wechat users are mostly between 20 and 49 years old.

The survey of major crops was multiple-choice, with a total of 168 clicks. 63% of the three staple grains were planted, 36% of corn, 19% of wheat and 8% of rice were planted, and 11% of them chose vegetables. Wheat and corn account for 55%, which is related to the fact that 71% of the participants are in the northeast and north China, of which 20% in the northeast and 51% in north China, and 10% of the users are in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

In the interviewees' identity survey, 24% are seed lovers, while in the seed scale survey, 17% are leisure and entertainment. 27% of users choose "yes" in whether they will buy online or not. this suggests that planting enthusiasts may be more likely to buy seedlings online.

Large growers

Buying seeds is not like buying clothes and shoes. Clothes and shoes can tell whether it is good or bad. It is difficult to see the problem if the seeds are not planted in the ground.

According to the results of the survey, large growers, cooperative members and family farm scale operators accounted for 30%, and ordinary farmers accounted for 32%. In addition, planting enthusiasts and scientific research workers accounted for 24% and 11% respectively. The planting scale of less than 50 mu accounts for 48% of 50 mu ~ 300 mu, accounting for 21% of those with more than 300 mu accounting for 12%. From these two results, we can see that the scale operators and the number of mu chosen are basically the same. Large growers and other large-scale operators are high-quality customer resources for both seed e-commerce and seed enterprises. How do they view seed e-commerce? The reporter contacted some big growers.

The planting projects of the Hubei Food and Grain seed breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative mainly include rice seedling raising factories and commercial rice planting, with an annual seedling raising service area of more than 10,000 mu and a self-operated circulation of 1125 mu of land. Liu Yingwen, chairman of the association, said: "all the seedling raising factories in Jianli County form a 'joint purchase and distribution' mode of agricultural material procurement, and there is a demand for agricultural materials covering an area of hundreds of thousands of mu in more than 40 seedling raising factories. Agricultural suppliers will provide very high-quality services, we purchase seeds from well-known brands, quality and service are guaranteed.

"buying seeds is not like buying clothes and shoes. Clothes and shoes can tell whether it is good or bad. It is difficult to see the problem if the seeds are not planted in the ground." Shao Aixu, chairman of Ainong Agricultural Technology Service Professional Cooperative, Rudong County, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province. He has planted 800 mu of land, all of which are rotation of japonica rice and wheat, and usually buys seeds from well-known seed companies. He said: "before many big growers choose to transfer land, they are engaged in agricultural machinery or agricultural materials distribution, and they will have the channels of some manufacturers."

Guoshu Town, Funing County, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, has operated 20,000 mu of land for rotation of rice and wheat, with half of the land helping seed enterprises to produce seeds and the other half to grow commercial grain. Wang Youbao, chairman of the cooperative, said: "Field crops like rice, especially the large planting area, are actually very simple and can be purchased directly from seed enterprises without going through the intermediate link."

E-commerce platform

The key difference between agricultural e-commerce and other e-commerce is that service is the core, both online and offline are indispensable, and offline distribution and planting services are particularly important.

User thinking is the core of Internet thinking, agricultural e-commerce has aimed at the last kilometer of the pain point, is running with all its strength.

Under the coordination of Taobao, the local government and merchants, a Taobao buyer returned the full payment to the buyer within two days after 2 / 3 of the strawberry seedlings bought by the shopkeeper of Taobao in Shuyang rotted and died.

This is the practical practice of Shuyang in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province to resolve disputes between seed and seedling buyers and sellers. In order to solve the worries of Taobao buyers about buying seeds, Shuyang conducted a unified verification and registration of nearly 3000 forest seedling Taobao online stores in the county, and set up a "Flower and Tree Seedling Network Trading Integrity Fund." According to Gu Yu, deputy county magistrate of Shuyang County, the fund will be used for Taobao sellers of flowers, trees and family horticulture that have been checked and registered. When there is a transaction dispute with the buyer and the loss of Zhaocheng is unable to pay compensation in time, the foundation will start paying compensation to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.

Online, according to reports, Taobao has also developed strict access standards for agricultural sellers and agricultural commodities release review mechanism, and will be launched in the near future. At that time, the release of seeds, pesticides, veterinary drugs these three categories of goods need to provide the registration certificate number, Taobao to the agricultural department database for verification, only the registration certificate number, picture, description consistent can be released after verification. At the same time, Taobao agricultural materials will vigorously support high-quality sellers, and sellers who provide agricultural management licenses will be given priority support from platform resources.

Aizong.com takes the direct marketing of manufacturers as a way to solve farmers' concerns about the quality of seeds, and provides professional technical guidance after selling seeds. Aizong.com 's own advantages are jointly invested by 11 backbone seed enterprises, such as Longping Hi-Tech, Beidahuang Kinfeng, China seed Group, and the Modern seed Industry Development Fund. at present, crop seed products from 14 seed enterprises, such as Anhui Longping, Kenfeng seed, Chinese seed, Golden Nonghua, Fengle seed, have been settled, which solves the safety problem of seed supply channels. According to Wang Weiwen, CEO of Aizou.com, Aizou.com is committed to opening up the information flow of the agricultural material industry, and is currently building a transaction, interaction and service platform to integrate various links of the agricultural material industry. Through big data's analysis, it can provide differentiated and customized seed purchase guidance and selection to farmers in different regions.

Fan Tianyang, director of JD.com 's agricultural e-commerce department, said that the key to the difference between agricultural e-commerce and other e-commerce is that service is the core, and both online and offline are indispensable, especially offline distribution and planting services are particularly important. JD.com is involved in the agricultural industry, the advantage is that it has a sound logistics and distribution center, while the lack of professional agricultural technology promoters and excellent seeds, pesticides, fertilizers and other agricultural products. Because of this, JD.com cooperated with Kim Jong-da to build the agricultural material platform No. 1 of agriculture and commerce.

Nopsson's agricultural e-commerce platform Tian Tian Circle also takes the issue of the last kilometer of service as a breakthrough. "Tian Tian Circle" is equipped with a service team of more than 200 authoritative agricultural experts. Nuopxin has 300 experience stores and 1000 service distribution points across the country, which can provide agricultural growers with full-chain services ranging from seeds to fertilization, pest control, agricultural product sales, insurance and so on.

What are the advantages of e-commerce?

When e-commerce enters the countryside, farmers can get richer materials through online shopping and value that they can sell their own products. When e-commerce encounters seeds, it also encounters the difficulties of the seed industry. What we need to do is to change from selling seeds to making services, and to provide technical solutions for the whole process of planting.

What is the advantage of Internet as a service?

The information is more transparent. With the increase in the number of users, it can be seen from the Internet which products are more popular, even accurate to the products that perform better in the region where the users are located. This is the gene of the Internet itself, which provides more information reference for farmers to buy seeds, and increases farmers' understanding of product information. This is also the reason why 32% of the respondents chose e-commerce as a tool for price comparison.

The service is more timely. The Internet brings a flat world. Through the Internet, farmers can cross many gaps and achieve interconnection, which makes it possible to provide timely technical services. For example, the mobile APP "farmer doctor", which specializes in providing technical services for farmers, farmers can send the seed problems they encounter to the platform directly through pictures, text and other information, and there will be experts from all walks of life to provide answers. The agricultural doctor platform will provide a reference for farmers to choose solutions by means of expert classification. This provides timely and convenient services for farmers.

Resources are more integrated. In the traditional rural society, there is a popular way of shopping to "go to the market". This is a real market. You have to ride your bike to a town or county a few kilometers away, especially before the Spring Festival and other major festivals. It is really lively, crowded and people-to-people. If you talk about the consumption experience, this consumption experience may not be "praised". What the Internet can do is one-stop direct access to farmers' homes, whether it is the means of livelihood or the means of production, or even convenient service resources. The effect of the Internet on the integration of resources is not just its one-stop service, where farmers become real gods and receive undiscounted services.

The quality is more reliable. What we are talking about here is the mode of brand operation and manufacturers' direct operation of outlets. For example, before going to college, when the family bought seeds, especially wheat seeds, they would go to a distant seed market with their neighbors to buy several large bags, focusing on wholesale bargains. In recent years, it may be that I haven't left agriculture either at school or at work. When my folks see me, they will ask if they can find some reliable and big brands for our hometown. As soon as I got home last year, I saw two exquisite red iron boxes on the coffee table, which I thought were tea, but they turned out to be corn seeds of a well-known brand. The brand operation of e-commerce and factory-owned stores can maximize to meet the needs of farmers. I may recommend an e-commerce to you in the future, young and old men can buy trusted brands directly.

"Internet + seed", taking the advantages of the Internet and aiming at the difficult problems in the seed market, please bring real technical services to farmers. Farmers will fall in love with you only after they have solved their concerns.