The beginning of the new decade has predominantly been a harbinger of several new trends and changes within and around the country. From the ongoing pandemic to the upending of traditional ways in which businesses operated erstwhile, the year 2020 saw it all. Amidst the various disruptions, what caught everyone’s eye was the expanding horizon of the agricultural segment.
The agriculture sector has always been the heart of the Indian economy. It contributes about 16% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 43% of the Indian workforce. However, limited access to technology, credit and marketplaces are some of the challenges that India’s agriculture sector has been grappling with in the past.
With the rise of Agri-tech in the country, the industry has leapfrogged tremendously in the past few years which have further paved the way for many new trends. Now the modern farms and agricultural operations work far differently than those a few years ago, predominantly due to various technological interventions including sensors, devices, machines and information technology.
Now these modern technologies combined with agricultural operations allow businesses to upsurge their profitability, efficiency, safety, while simultaneously enhancing their environmentally friendly nature. In other simpler terms, the implementation of various technological advancements has just revamped the agricultural sector for the better. It has enabled the market to cope with the challenges and tread on the path of digital growth.
Amidst the various innovations, what has emerged as the most viable option is SaaS technology. In the recent past, SaaS based platforms have been an active contributor towards the betterment of the agriculture sector. What comes to the forefront is a feature-rich multi-vendor marketplace solution offered by SaaS based platforms. This marketplace extensively contributes towards solving complex requirements of the agritech business.
StoreHippo is a fully customizable, mobile-first ecommerce solution provider built on MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud Native, Headless Commerce) architecture. A leader in the SaaS Ecommerce industry, StoreHippo is designed to give brands a strong Omni-channel presence, better user experience and higher sales conversions across digital touchpoints. StoreHippo’s highly flexible service-oriented architecture, powered by AI and automation, gives businesses the ability to implement diverse B2B, B2C and B2B2C business models in no time.
The firm has reiterated the key trends and insights on how SaaS-based platforms are proving to be a game-changer for the agriculture sector. The recently published report reiterates the trends and changes that ruled the segment and how SaaS revamped the scenario. The findings of the report are based on the observations recorded by StoreHippo over the span of one year.
Highlights of the report are as follows:
●A feature-rich multi vendor marketplace solution that easily takes care of complex requirements of the agritech business is the need of the hour
● SaaS based platforms help agri-tech businesses connect farmers directly to end customers
● Agitech brands can easily converge, sell and manage multiple channels by using Omni-channel support and sync
● SaaS-based e-commerce platform allows Agritech marketplaces to set up a network of vendor sub-stores(hosted on unique URLs) with a customized look, inventory, payment and shipping options
The other prominent features that help in the enhancement of the Agriculture sector include:
● Easy Operations- SaaS-based platforms are easy to use and any person right from the farmers, agri-products business owners and vendors who possess a basic knowledge about using computers and smartphones can confidently handle their business online. This has been a major reason that has led to the acceptance of SaaS-based techniques, especially in the agriculture space.
● SaaS as a Communication Tool- Another observation in this regard states that SaaS platforms help agritech businesses connect farmers directly to the end customers thereby eliminating the middlemen and helping farmers in getting better returns for their produce.
● Integration of Offline Shopping Experience with Online- Agri-tech businesses are also working towards merging online and offline experiences of buyers, where again SaaS-based platforms come to the forefront. SaaS platforms allow the brands to converge, sell and manage multiple channels using their support and sync. SaaS platforms also offer the facility of booking Agri products online and collecting the products from the nearest offline agri-shop in person.
● Agri Products Marketplaces- With turnkey marketplace solutions new-age agri-marketplaces can be set up where farmers/ agri product sellers etc can be on-boarded as vendors. The marketplace in the agricultural sector can scale up to any number of sellers, products or locations and the admins have complete control over all the vendor sub-stores. The vendors can manage their products from their separate dashboard and even have the complete UI in their native regional language.
● Streamlined Logistics- Agritech businesses can also have their own fleet of delivery boys and manage them from a central dashboard and even avail multiple integrated shipping and payment solutions through SaaS based platforms.
Summing up the year gone by and the industrial changes being introduced, Mr. Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo, said; “The past year has been full of unexpected happenings, eventually giving rise to a number of new innovations. The market has witnessed a lot of disruption even in conventional sectors like agriculture. The adoption of technology in the agriculture sector has streamlined and enhanced agricultural practices thereby making the sector efficient, new-age and tech-savvy. FaaS (Farming as a Service) has grown 2x from FY’2019-FY’2020 and future-ready technologies along with turnkey ecommerce solutions are powering this growth in a big way.”
Summing Up!
Observing the emerging trends, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that SaaS based solutions are the most suitable option to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for agri-products paired with the growing concerns faced by the agricultural industry. SaaS solutions when integrated with agriculture can make the daily agronomic processes sustainable, supply chains efficient, and bring transparency and traceability in the sector at large!