BAYER CREATES "BRICKS AND CLICKS" STRATEGY WITH RETAILERS.Editor's Note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : Jim DeLong is head of sales and e-solutions for Bayer Corporation and has been instrumental in the development and implementation of BayerValue.com, the new business-to-business  This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.You can assist by [ editing it] now. e-commerce e-commerce, commerce conducted over the Internet, most often via the World Wide Web. E-commerce can apply to purchases made through the Web or to business-to-business activities such as inventory transfers. platform for the Agricultural Division of Bayer that launches this month. In addition, DeLong provides e-business (Electronic-BUSINESS) Doing business online. The term is often used synonymously with e-commerce, but e-business is more of an umbrella term for having a presence on the Web. support to the worldwide Crop Protection business group of Bayer. Previously, DeLong was president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Wilfarm LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control . AM: Tell us about BayerValue.com. JD: BayerValue.com is an innovative business strategy to help our customers -- agricultural retailers -- remain profitable in an ever increasingly complex and competitive crop protection marketplace. It also helps retailers have greater real-time 1. real-time - Describes an application which requires a program to respond to stimuli within some small upper limit of response time (typically milli- or microseconds). Process control at a chemical plant is the classic example. access to inventory, sales, financial data and other business management tools. In many ways, BayerValue.com marries the strengths of the traditional distribution channel; the relationships, service and knowledge of the local retailer; and the speed and efficiency of the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the to order, track and ship products. Our goal is to sign on 1,500 retailers, primarily in the 14 Midwestern Mid·west or Middle West A region of the north-central United States around the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi Valley. It is generally considered to include Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and and Pacific Northwestern states, during the first year. There are other aspects of BayerValue.com that benefit the industry. This includes the use of RAPID bar coding and NAPD NAPD National Association of Pallet Distributors (UK) NAPD National Academy for Professional Driving NAPD National Association of Police Divers grower ID numbers for product tracking; retained Bayer ownership of product, which frees up retailer capital; and uniform grower pricing. In the future, there will be grower Internet portals that will help drive interested growers to their local dealers for product information and sales. AM: How will BayerValue.com be different from the numerous direct buying or auction-type sites that already exist? JD: BayerValue.com is different because it is designed to support the efforts of the local retailer in selling and servicing Bayer products to their customer, the grower. We will not sell direct to growers. We believe the distributor and retailer are critical and essential links in providing growers with both products and services they need to be productive and successful. Most other Web-based e-commerce sites are for direct selling Direct selling is the marketing of products or services to consumers through sales tactics including presentations, demonstrations, and phone calls. It is sometimes also considered to be a sale that does not utilize a "middle man" such as a retail outlets, distributors or brokers. of seeds, equipment and crop protection products to growers. They bypass traditional channels and retailers. This devalues the products, and reduces channel profitability and the services that local retailers provide. If this continues, it will damage the critical infrastructure that growers must have to continue to be the most productive suppliers of food and fiber in the world. AM: What has the response been from distributors and retailers? JD: Since we announced BayerValue.com back in June, the response and signup in the program by retailers has been better than expected. Most retailers have Internet access See how to access the Internet. and see the efficiencies of doing business over the Internet, which gives them more time to provide more customer sales and service. We know that most growers, given similar prices and choices for products, would prefer to buy locally, even though they may use the Internet for product and pricing information. Retailers say that BayerValue.com helps provide them with a more equal playing field. At the same time, it maintains profitability and helps reduce the under-selling that has plagued the industry. AM: What percentage of farm commerce will be conducted electronically by the year 2005? JD: I would dare say that the majority of farm commerce will be conducted, either in whole or in part, via the Internet or other electronic means by 2005. The technology certainly exists to make it so for agriculture, which has lagged behind the consumer markets. Just look at how much consumer commerce is being conducted electronically today. Agriculture has to take advantage of those technologies to become even more efficient, productive and profitable. AM: Can e-commerce play a positive role and have a significant effect on a farmer's pocketbook? JD: Absolutely. But the benefits of e-commerce extend way beyond a farmer's pocketbook to making them more efficient, saving them time, and accessing new markets for what they produce. Just as we view BayerValue.com as a way to ensure market access for our products, growers should view the Internet and e-commerce as one tool to help make them more efficient and profitable. In many rural areas, ag retailers are critical and essential to the farmers that they serve. Helping retailers remain successful during tough times directly impacts the local ag economy and it ensures that farmers have a close and stable place to conduct business well into the future. |
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