Ag Tech Sunday - Sunsetting one product as another takes off

By AgVend

AgVend, the leader in powering the omnichannel experience in agriculture, announced today they will be sunsetting their initial product, the AgVend.com Marketplace on September 30th. The news comes on the back of rapid adoption for the recently released AgVend-Powered Grower portals. AgVend will be reprioritizing all development efforts to support the growth of this new product and future white-labeled offerings for ag retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.

AgVend was founded three years ago with a mission to support ag retailers in meeting the ever-changing needs of the American grower. This undertaking initially took form as an online marketplace for crop inputs where ag retailers could list their products and prices anonymously. The AgVend.com Marketplace allowed retailers to reach growers nationwide.

“The Marketplace was designed to combat the threat of third-party eCommerce providers that were growing at the time. We knew our partners would eventually want a way to engage their core customers digitally, so we began experimenting with white-labeled solutions during the 2019 season,” noted Eli Rosenberg, Head of Product at AgVend.

In April 2020, guided by retailer and grower demand, AgVend launched a white-labeled product line that allowed direct connection between the two parties. The Grower Portal solution combines the convenience of the Marketplace with our Partner Retailers’ pre-established brand, team, and relationships with their customers. The digital platform allows quicker, more streamlined communication and gives both retailers and growers instant access to powerful data that can influence business decisions.

“Over the past three years, we’ve learned a great deal about how growers want to do business, and many of those lessons are reflected in our new Grower Portal product. Our biggest takeaway has been that 90% of growers still prefer to work directly with their local, trusted retailers. However, the majority of that segment wants a more digitally-integrated way to interact,” said AgVend CEO Alexander Reichert of the company’s evolution.

The Grower Portal product line has been quick to establish traction within the market. As a result, AgVend grew its year-over-year revenue by 20x in Q2 and expanded its team by 25%. The growth is driven by a diverse collection of cooperative and independent retailers nationwide, with AgVend now counting 15% of the CropLife 50 as partners for this new product. The majority of those contracts came within the last three months.

“While this is the end of our inaugural product, we see it as a natural evolution in our company’s trajectory and a very exciting one at that. With Grower Portals, our network of innovative ag retailers is now far better prepared to handle the threat of ​disruptive​ eCommerce companies and ​go-it-alone​ industry incumbents building their own digital solutions,” concluded Alexander Reichert.

In an effort to prepare for the closure over the past six months, AgVend has migrated many of its Marketplace retail partners to their own Grower Portals. Growers looking to purchase crop inputs online will be able to request access to the network of AgVend-powered Grower Portals beginning on October 1st. AgVend will continue to fully support all orders placed on their Marketplace before September 30th.

About AgVend:  AgVend powers the omnichannel experience in agriculture. We provide ag retailers with white-labeled information, engagement, and commerce portals. Our suite of products is designed to strengthen the relationship between ag retailers and their grower customers. The AgVend team is comprised of individuals with backgrounds in agriculture, digital marketing, and omnichannel retail, and operates from dual locations in Minnesota and California.

Watch the video here.

www.agvend.com