JD.com Data: Sales Boom for Agricultural Products in the Mid-Spring

by Xiaoqian Han

Online shopping in rural areas has increased rapidly on JD.com in recent years. Before the spring equinox of 2022, which falls on March 20 this year, "green consumption" such as agricultural products, gardening and plants increased significantly. Recently, JD's Consumption and Industry Development Institute released a report featuring analysis on green consumption.

Below are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Online consumption of agricultural products has grown significantly.
• Compound fertilizer turnover increased by more than 10 times year-on-year.
• Consumption of agricultural technology services increased by more than 10 times.
• The generations born after 1985 (post-85s) and 1975 (post-75s) are the largest consumer groups of agricultural supplies and gardening, contributing 32 percent of online sales. Post-85s choose to buy fertilizers, animal feed, flowers, and plants; post-75s like to buy gardening supplies and seeds.

Physical Products consumption

Since the beginning of spring on February 4 , 2022, the online transaction volume of JD.com's agricultural products, plants and other green consumption has increased by more than 40 percent year-on-year (YoY), and the turnover of fertilizers and gardening has increased by 317 percent and 247 percent YoY.

In the category of agricultural products, the transaction value of compound fertilizers climbed by more than 10 times YoY. The volume of nematicides and agricultural machinery sold increased by more than 6 times YoY.

In addition to the consumer demand for agricultural products in rural areas, urban consumers' demand for plants is also increasing. The turnover of mini-scale landscape plants increased by more than 9 times YoY and the volume of large-scale landscape plants and gardening tools increased by more than 150 percent YoY.

Service products consumption

The transaction value of agricultural technology services increased by more than 10 times YoY, and the volume of gardening services increased by 247 percent YoY. Before the spring equinox in 2022, the proportion of agricultural technology consumption services in county-level rural areas increased by 20 percent, and the proportion of transaction volume rose from 62 percent to 82 percent.

The consumption proportion of gardening services in cities is higher than that in rural counties, and nearly 60 percent of the consumption of gardening services occur in cities. Consumers from urban areas represented by big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou prefer to buy gardening supplies, flowers and plants. The consumers in rural areas of the county level prefer to buy animal feed, breeding tools and veterinary prescription drugs.

From the perspective of consumption characteristics in different regions, Eastern China has the highest growth in the market share of online agricultural products. Consumers in Eastern China prefer to buy fertilizers, flowers and plants, and gardening supplies; Northeastern China's consumers prefer to buy animal feed, farming tools, and veterinary prescription drugs; consumers in Northern China prefer to buy feed, veterinary prescription drugs, and gardening supplies.

Consumer demographics

In the online market for agricultural products, the post-85s and post-75s are the largest consumer groups, contributing 32 percent of the online transaction volume. Compared with the consumption proportion of all age groups, the consumption proportion of the user group over 46 years old in agricultural products is significantly higher than the consumption proportion of all categories. In contrast, the post-85s prefer to buy fertilizers, animal feed, flowers and plants; the post-75s prefer to buy gardening supplies and seeds.

Differing from traditional e-commerce, JD.com is a new entity enterprise that offers digital technology and capabilities, regulates upstream merchants and connects consumers with quality in order to promote rural revitalization, and drives more farmers to become financially successful.

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