The wholesale grain website
provides a link between the suppliers and customers to buy and sell the whole
grains. This website provides buyers and suppliers with the facility to deal
with each other through this online platform. In this paper, there is a
detailed marketing analysis and competitors analyses for the online business of
wholesale grains. In this era of technology, the business is moving towards the
digitization to make its products more accessible to the customers and the
suppliers. The website is basically provides a mutual platform for suppliers
and buyers. In this website, the
suppliers can display their products that are easily accessible to the customers.
This website is providing two-way services to both suppliers and buyers,
through this platform the suppliers can display their products where it is
easily accessible to the customers, this platform also allows the suppliers to
have more sales of their products. The customers on the other side also get
desire products without making a lot of efforts from their homes. The
digitization of the business also increases the overall credibility of the
business because of the use of advanced technology (Boone &
Kurtz, Contemporary Marketing, 2015). This paper makes a
detailed marketing analysis by doing a SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis. The
company is currently making a lot of revenue because of digitization, and the
website also offers advanced features to the suppliers and buyers to make their
services user-friendly.
Goals of Analysis of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
The main goal of the paper is to
access the credibility and performance of whole grain website business by
conducting the marketing and competitor’s analysis. There is a SWOT and PESTLE
analysis of the whole grain business of website to know about its current situation
and position in the industry. The objective of this paper is to know about the
market of the business, customers’ needs, and how the business is fulfilling
the needs of the customers. For the competitor’s
analysis in this paper, the Porter five forces analysis is conducted to evaluate
the competitor's analysis of the business and what is the whole grain business is
doing uniquely for having a competitor’s advantage in the market.
Market Analysis of Wholesale of
Grains for B2B Website/Platform
SWOT Analysis of Market Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B
Website/Platform
Strength of Market Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B
Website/Platform
The major strength of the whole
grain business is the online features it provides to the suppliers and buyers
to communication or deals with each other effectively. The advanced
technological features that the business is using increase the overall satisfaction
of the suppliers and customers on this platform. Because of the digitalization
of the business the products are not just easily accessible to the customers,
but now the whole grain business is likely to access more customers through
this online platform (O'Connor, 2010).
Weakness of Market Research
on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
One of the major weakness of the
whole grain business is the lack of effective marketing and promotions of the
services that they are providing in the market. Although the company has come a
long way because of its digitalization and basic marketing tools but now to access
the larger quantity of customers, the company now needs to improve its overall
marketing and promotional activities.
Opportunities of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
Being an online whole grain
business, there are a lot of opportunities for the business to expand and go
into the global market. One of the main benefits of the online business is that
the cost of getting into the global market is very less and the business now easily
can get into the international market without any physical existence on that
place. If the whole grain business simply wants to grow its marketing size, it
is essential for them to improve the overall marketing and promotional tools
that they are currently using in the business.
Threats of Market Research
on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
One of the biggest thread for the
whole grain business is the competitors in the market, as the products that
they are dealing in the basic necessity of the people, so the competition in
the market for this product is also very high. By the increase in the digitalization
of the business the breaches of data and cybercrimes are also increasing that
is also a threat for the whole grain business, so it is important for the
business to improve its overall security of the website if they want to play
safe and desire to get whole grain business to the next level.
PESTLE analysis of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
Political of Market Research
on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
Like the physical business, the
wholesale grain business online platform also needs to consider the political
factors depending on the region in which they are operating. In the case of
wholesale grain business, political stability has a lot of impact on the functions
and overall performance of the business (Grünig & Morschett, 2016).
Economical of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
For the online business, the
economic factors are very significant as far as the revenue and profits of the
company are a concern. As the wholesale grain business is going global, so the
countries economical factions and economical fluctuations have a huge impact on
the business.
Higher economic movement means higher revenue and faster growth for
business while low economic movement means the reverse (Grünig &
Morschett, 2016).
Social of Market Research on
Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
In foreign markets, the growth of
the business can be very challenging for the business. The social trends can
have a huge influence on businesses. The mobile technology increasing use has also
have an impact on the business. In many of the societies, the mobile has been famous,
and a huge quantity of people internationally are now consuming mobile devices
for shopping and other commitments (Grünig & Morschett, 2016).
Technological of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
The wholesale grain business is
currently focusing on technology for the improvement of its business processes
and operations. The technology has a huge impact on the whole grain business
and improves the overall exposure of the business in the industry (Grünig &
Morschett, 2016).
Legal of Market Research on
Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
A legal agreement is a sign for the
businesses to operate in the internationally. If the business does not follow
the legal structure, then it can create a problem for the business in the long
run. The wholesale grain business has a separate team to be careful of its legal
problems. Nonfulfillment can effect in monetary losses and also loss of reputation
and image (Grünig & Morschett, 2016).
Environment
of Market Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
The environmental factors have a distinctive
position in the context of online business. For the shipment and delivery of
the products, it is important for the company to use the sustainable material
that is not harmful to the environment because the cust0mers are very much
concern with the sustainability of the products (Grünig &
Morschett, 2016).
Target market of Market Research
on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
The market segmentation is also
needed to complete the market research of wholesale grains. The reason is due
to a market of any business is linked closely with the segmentation of the
business itself. A study has described a market segmentation as “dividing a market into distinct groups of
buyers with different needs, characteristics or behaviour, who might require
separate products or marketing mixes.” Therefore, the market
segmentation needs to be conducted by wholesale grains companies as well, in
order to figure out the potential target market for the business (Dolnicar,
Grün, & Leisch, 2018). By doing this, wholesale grains
companies will be able to knowledge about various types of competent consumers.
Thus, the wholesale grain companies could create perfect strategies to fit with
their target market.
The target market of wholesale
grains companies (Pride, Ferrell, Lukas, Schembri, & Niininen, 2012) would be as
mentioned below.
Hypermarkets or Supermarkets
Grocery stores
Specific stores such as bakery
shops, organic retailers, etc.
Local markets
Online shops
Restaurants
Food industries companies
Among those target market above,
hypermarkets or supermarkets come up to be the one that has a great market
share in the trade of grains. Therefore, the wholesale grains companies, even
those who are running the business in a B2B platform, should pay attention to
this. The reason is that many people find it more comfortable to shop in
hypermarkets or supermarkets (Cavusgil, Knight, Riesenberger,
Rammal, & Rose, 2014). In addition to this, a competition
that risen between supermarkets is quite aggressive. In fact, there is a
notable trend which has developed that hypermarkets or supermarkets have turned
out to become other segmented as high-end grocery stores.
Next to this, specific stores
such as bakery shops which set up an essential target market for wholesale
grains have experienced the developing issues from the big non-specialized
retail channels with industrialized bakery deals as well as in-store bakeries.
As mentioned above, B2B wholesale
grains companies have about seven potential target market in doing their
business. These potential targets are also defined as the customers for the
companies. The profile of these customers is explained as below.
Hypermarkets or Supermarkets of
Market Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
The hypermarkets or supermarkets
are one of the potential customers of B2B wholesale grains companies. The
reason is obvious, as we know that numbers of people often do their regular or
monthly shopping in hypermarkets or supermarkets. Therefore, it is a big
opportunity for the wholesale grains companies to gain big amount of sales with
distributing to hypermarkets or supermarkets. In the other hand, any wholesale
grains company which distribute their products through hypermarkets or
supermarkets also need to prepare for a tough competition as well. As acknowledged
that there are thousands of brands or companies that distribute their products
to hypermarkets or supermarkets. Therefore, there will be a tight competition
between those companies (Luiz, 2016).
Grocery stores of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
Grocery stores are a typical
retail store that mainly sells food. Grocery stores running their business in
various diverse methods which ranging from country family-owned, boutique
chains, or also bigger supermarket chains. Even though this type of store is
considered to be smaller than hypermarket or supermarkets, but grocery stores
are an ideal place to distribute for wholesale grains since usually, they have
loyal customers which come from the local people who are living around the
location of grocery stores (Daft, 2013).
Specific stores such as bakery shops, organic retailers, etc.
Specific stores such as bakery
shops are also on the list of the target market for B2B wholesale grains
companies. The reason behind this is due to the bakery shops definitely have a huge
demand for grains to produce their products such as bread or cakes. For this
reason, the bakery shops will obviously search for the wholesale grain
companies that could supply them with grains that they need for their
productions at a reasonable price. Plus, usually, the bakery shops are
potential to be loyal customers as well since, once they order from one company
and if they find out that the company could supply good quality of grains, then
they will only trust that company to supply their demand of grains. And along with
the development of technology, the B2B platform will make it easier for the
bakery shops to order their demands by using the online website of the
wholesale grains companies (Converse, 2013).
Local markets of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
Another potential customer of B2B
wholesale grains companies is the local markets. As we acknowledged that local
markets contain huge numbers of shops. Therefore, the local markets could be
the potential customers since the local markets could give wide-range of
distribution for the wholesale grains companies (Brown, 2014).
Online shops of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
With the growth of technology and
the standard of lifestyle, people nowadays have another option to do their
shopping, which is by online shopping. There are many online shops that spread
out on the Internet. Many of them are working in the food business, and already
have numbers of customers. For this reason, online shops is an ideal place as
well for B2B wholesale grain companies to distribute the products. In fact, the
platform of B2B e-commerce will make it easier for any companies to distribute
their products to their customers or to other online shops with using the help
of the Internet (Boone & Kurtz, Contemporary
Marketing, Update 2015, 2014).
Restaurants of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
B2B wholesale grain companies
also get beneficial with distributing their products to restaurants. The
restaurants are always have huge demands for food ingredients since they are
selling foods with their own recipes. And definitely, they need big supplies of
food ingredients including grains as well. This reason has made restaurants as
one of the potential customers of wholesale grain companies. In addition to
this, nowadays, most of the restaurants are using high and latest technology to
support their business. Thus, B2B platform of wholesale grain companies will
make the restaurants to be more comfortable in making any business deals with
the companies (Pride, Ferrell, Lukas, Schembri,
& Niininen, 2012).
Food industries companies of
Market Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
The food industries companies are
the companies that are running their business in manufacturing foods and
beverages. Hence, these companies need supplies for their ingredients, including
grains to produce their products. For this reason, the food industries
companies are included in the target market of wholesale grain companies (Pride,
Ferrell, Lukas, Schembri, & Niininen, 2012).
Customers’ demands of Market
Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
A report from the United
States Department of Agriculture or USDA has mentioned that there is a
huge demand for wheat from many countries in whole over the world. The reason
behind this is the fact that the world’s consumption of wheat is bigger than
its production. In the report, USDA even predicted that the global wheat
production for 2018/2019 would fall down about
if compared
to the
Million
Metrics Tons (MMT) last year. The main cause mentioned in this report is due to
the substantial weather issues in Russia, Australia, and also in the European
Union (EU). The report also detailed that in the European Union,
production
fell down for
below the
crop that made last year. For Russia, the report mentioned for
productions
fell down for
under the
crop last year. And for Australia, the report noted for the amount harvest of
, which is also claimed to be the lowest harvest
that the country made since the year of 2007/2008 (Hutchins,
2019).
From the report above, there is a
big opportunity for the a new upcoming B2B wholesale grains to get the profit
due to there is a great demand for wheat in all over the world which bigger
than its production.
In addition to this, the
Internationals Grains Council has also conducted a report for the supply and
demand of total grains in the world. The detail of report could be seen from
the table below.
Competition in the market of
Market Research on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
The competition of wholesale
grains business in the market is quite tough since there are many companies
that running the business in the wholesale grains. Those companies seem to
recognize clearly the high profits of wholesale grains business in the market.
Along with the improvement of technology, there are many companies that running
their business in the platform of B2B, including the wholesale grain companies
as well. Therefore, we can say that
there is a tight competition in the market of B2B wholesale grains companies.
For this reason, it is quite
essential for B2B wholesale grains companies to carefully analyze the quality
and also the price offered by the other companies as the competitors in the
market. In order to survive in the business, B2B wholesale grain companies also
must have proper marketing strategies to get more customers. The approaches
such as competitive pricing could benefit the wholesale grain companies to
attract the customers (Boone & Kurtz, 2015).
1/ What
is currently done to connect suppliers to buyers in the grains market?
There are some methods that
connect suppliers and buyers in the grains market along with the growth of
technology. First method is from the face-to-face meeting between the suppliers
and the buyers. The second one is from online since many companies nowadays are
interested in becoming B2B platform, included the companies that running their business in grains.
2/
Is there a website already connecting these actors on the market?
Nowadays there are numbers of
companies that running their grains business in B2B platform. They have their official website to make them
connected with their buyers. For example such as Eris Flour Mills (www.erisflourmills.com)
which the main millers and wheat flour producers of Turkey, and also SZT
Corporation (http://www.sztcorporation.com/)
which is the processors and exporters of rice from Pakistan.
3/
If a website(s) doing this already exists: what is it? And what are their
strengths/weaknesses/market share?
The strength of these B2B
business platform is from their wide-range of channel through the Internet.
These companies could export their products to all the countries around the
world with the help of Internet. In the other hand, there is also a weakness
for the B2B platform in the grains market. One of them is, most buyers will
prefer to have face-to-face business transaction rather than only connected
from the Internet. This is due to that face-to-face business transaction will
able to assure them that they are dealing with the real companies.
Conclusion on Market Research on
Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
Summing up the discussion about
the marketing analysis and competitors analysis of the online whole grain
business, it can be said that the website basically provides a mutual platform
for the suppliers and buyers company is currently making a lot of revenue
because of digitalization, and the website also offers advanced features to the
suppliers and buyers to make their services user friendly. The advanced
technological features that the business is using increase the overall
satisfaction of the suppliers and customers on this platform. Although the
company has come a long way because of its digitalization and basic marketing
tools but now to access the larger quantity of customers. One of the main
benefits of the online business is that the cost of getting into the global market
is very less, and the business now easily can get into the international
market. By the increase in the digitalization of the business the breaches of
data and cybercrimes are also increasing that is also a threat for the whole
grain business. As the whole grain business is going global, so the countries
economical factions and economical fluctuations have a huge impact on the
business.
The target market of wholesale
grains companies is mentioned such as hypermarkets or supermarkets, grocery
stores, specific stores such as bakery shops, organic retailers, etc., local
markets, online shops, restaurants, and also food industries companies. These
target market are the potential customers for B2B wholesale grains companies.
The huge demand of grains in the
world gives a big opportunity for B2B wholesale companies to get more profits
in their sales since a report from the United States Department of Agriculture or
USDA has mentioned that the world’s consumption of wheat is bigger than
its production. Therefore, even though there is a tough competition in the
market of wholesale grains, including in B2B platform, but the chance for the
companies to get profits is still open wide if we considering the fact on that
report. The important thing to be noted by B2B wholesale grains companies is
that they have to make proper strategies in order to survive in the business
References of Market Research
on Wholesale of Grains for B2B Website/Platform
Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2014). Contemporary
Marketing, Update 2015. Cengage Learning.
Boone,
L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2015). Contemporary Marketing. Cengage
Learning.
Brown,
A. C. (2014). Understanding Food: Principles and Preparation. Cengage
Learning.
Cavusgil,
S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L.
(2014). International Business. Pearson Australia.
Converse,
P. D. (2013). Introduction To Marketing - Principles Of Wholesale And Retail
Distribution. Read Books Ltd.
Daft,
R. L. (2013). Management. Cengage Learning.
Dolnicar,
S., Grün, B., & Leisch, F. (2018). Market Segmentation Analysis:
Understanding It, Doing It, and Making It Useful. Springer.
Grünig,
R., & Morschett, D. (2016). Developing International Strategies.
Springer.
Hutchins,
C. (2019, February 19). Key Facts from USDA’s February 2019 World Wheat
Supply and Demand Report. Retrieved from
https://www.uswheat.org/wheatletter/key-facts-from-usdas-february-2019-world-wheat-supply-and-demand-report/
Luiz,
M. (2016). Worldwide Casebook In Marketing Management. World Scientific.
O'Connor,
T. (2010). Strategic Planning for Distributors: Execution Isn't
Everything--It's the Only Thing! Natl Assn Wholesale-Distr.
Pride,
W. M., Ferrell, O. C., Lukas, B. A., Schembri, S., & Niininen, O. (2012). Marketing
Principles. Cengage Learning.