why retailers are important for the agriculture sector and why you should include them in your market research - QandQ Agriculture Market Research Insights
Retailers traditionally have a key role to play in the agriculture sector. Apart from being the key point of purchase for agrochemicals, seeds and nutrition, they are also one of the most important influencers who can change the farmers’ minds and convince them to buy products. Often in many categories, the retailer shop is a key point of decision-making for farmers.

Hence agri-input companies must stay in their good books ( quite literally, in this case,😉)

Types of Market Research studies that can be done with trade –

1. Concept testing for new products

Retailers often help to understand how products will perform in the category. They have a good understanding of the farmer’s challenges and need gaps and can provide good feedback on product fit in the market. In our experience conducting trade studies at this stage helps to refine the product value proposition aiding in better communication design.

2. Feedback on new product launches

Trade studies are often conducted post-launch or after the completion of 2 seasons. These studies help to gauge feedback from trade on product sales, concerns with on-ground sales force and enable companies to get feedback from farmers via the retailers. In addition, insights into market pricing, including retailer landing price and farmer sales price, are obtained. Retailers can also provide feedback on product usage dynamics in terms of dosage, application window and target pest for which the farmers have used the brand. Lastly, they also help us understand the reasons for non-trials, concerns with logistics, pricing, product performance and even company policies and schemes.

3. Understanding trade margins on brand ( retailer landing price vs farmer selling price)

This is a very crucial piece of information that companies often struggle to get. Understanding the farmer price of a brand is crucial to making pricing decisions, understanding distributor and retailer margins issues and preventing undercutting in the market. Such studies also show the geographical differences between farmer prices of brands.

4. Category feedback studies ( includes understanding key brands, sales trends, concerns and need gaps)

These studies help understand your product and the category, especially the sales trends of your brand and key competition. Retailers are also vocal about predicting sales trends of key brands and underlying reasons for the growth and decline of brands. These studies help get a holistic picture of the category from trade.

In a nutshell, retailers are very important stakeholders and getting them on board is critical. Hence, a periodic trade review to understand how your brand is performing and the need gaps or challenges they have is critical to your business. The above highlights some of the key studies that can be done. We can be as innovative as required.

Q&Q works with retailers across the APAC markets and helps you understand them better.

Speak to us to conduct your next study!

Real People, Real Insights. ™