GROWERS builds an alternative way for farmers to connect with agribusiness

GROWERS, a North Carolina-based agriculture technology company, introduced a farmer-facing platform that makes an immediate impact on the profitability of the farm with the launch of an input buying platform, The GROWERS App. GROWERS, known best for its ag retail sales enhancement platform, GROWERS Rally, announced a South Dakota pilot of the input buying platform that quietly launched on December 1, 2022. A month later, GROWERS has seen farmer and retailer adoption surpass expectations and is expanding the pilot to Illinois.

Aligning with GROWERS' mission to put easy-to-use software solutions in the hands of every farmer and advisor in agriculture, The GROWERS App is a free platform for farmers that allows them to request pricing on farm inputs from retailers and cooperatives, receive and compare offers, then select the best offer and complete the transaction right in the platform.

"This isn't e-commerce or online shopping, a model which still has challenges in this industry," explains Steven Valencsin, GROWERS CEO. "Instead, The GROWERS App leverages a digital platform to create an online community that connects buyers and sellers around a common goal: fulfilling needs and completing profitable transactions."

Farmers on The GROWERS App benefit from gaining access to more options on products and prices from the retailers, cooperatives and input providers which are likely outside their current network or geography. Retailers benefit from being able to increase their sales by gaining access to new customers in the platform without having to increase their sales force - a significant benefit in today's labor market.

The GROWERS App also contributes to the sustainability of farms in material ways by adding directly to the farm's bottom line.

"Everything we do at GROWERS is for the betterment of farmers, and The GROWERS App is a natural progression of our flagship product, GROWERS Rally," says Valencsin. "We took a look at how we could make the biggest impact on the farmer's business and input buying was at the top of the list. The GROWERS App is a platform that helps farmers manage their quotes, compare prices and expand their access to retailers to help them ensure they're getting the best prices possible on inputs."

The GROWERS Retail Network

With the launch of the South Dakota pilot of The GROWERS App, GROWERS began building The GROWERS Retail Network. The GROWERS Retail Network is a group of agriculture retailers and cooperatives that meet GROWERS' standard of service, reputation, and commitment to serving farmers. When requesting prices on products or services through The GROWERS App, farmers can either send the request to their own local retailers, The GROWERS Retail Network, or both.

"One of the many points of feedback we heard over and over again from farmers as we did market research for The GROWERS App is that they feel limited to the products, knowledge and prices of their local retailers," says Valencsin. "In order to give farmers access to the widest range of products and services at the best prices while also ensuring they have an excellent customer experience we realized we needed to build our own network of retailers who met our high standards of service and integrity, thus the conception of The GROWERS Retail Network."

Today, The GROWERS Retail Network is made up of retailers that sell seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, biologicals, micronutrients, soil sampling, precision data analysis, and more. GROWERS is actively recruiting retailers to join its network as the pilot expands.

GROWERS Rally and GROWERS App

GROWERS Rally is GROWERS' sales enhancement platform designed to help retailers give farmers an efficient and professional buying experience. The platform also serves as a way for retailers to manage farmer input requests as they come in. Using GROWERS Rally, retailers can easily view new requests, apply product pricing pulled directly from the retailer's internal price list, as well as recommend replacement products. GROWERS Rally also allows retailers to keep an accurate record of which offers were accepted, rejected and are still pending. GROWERS Rally and The GROWERS App together bring farmers a differentiated input buying experience.

Expansion of The GROWERS App

The pilot of The GROWERS App will continue to expand across the United States over the next several months, starting with Illinois today, and expanding to Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, North Carolina, Virginia and the Delta region within the first quarter of 2023.