Empowering online growth for Techmix | A digital strategy for e-commerce success

TechMix, founded in 1983, is a leading innovator of technologies and products supporting the physiological needs of livestock during production or stress events. TechMix provides all kinds of science-based and antibiotic-free solutions enabling animals to drink, eat, and produce in an efficient and sustainable way. The company works closely alongside farmers, veterinarians and distribution partners in order to understand their needs and challenges.

To strengthen the collaboration with their German distribution partner, TechMix decided to explore their opportunities within e-commerce for German dairy farmers. The tech savviness of dairy farmers has been increasing over the last years, which is reflected through the large adoption of digital farm management systems, but also the farmer’s desire to buy farm products online. However, for TechMix, their distribution partner and the e-commerce development team it was unclear how these trends were exactly unfolding in the German dairy farmer market.

‘With web shops of varying success across Europe, we saw the need to understand howe-commerce could extend the traditional sales efforts of our distributors. The goal was to explore farmers' interest in purchasing directly from digital platforms, ensuring this complements their established sales through veterinarians.’
David Muysson – Director TechMix International

Therefore, it was essential for TechMix to gain more insight into the determinants for success when launching an e-commerce channel for dairy farmers. Hammer used a combination of research methods to arrive at the required insights as input for the development process.  

Thorough desk-research was needed to get an understanding of the target audience – the German dairy farmers. Hammer dived into their characteristics (demographics, farmer traits, level of tech savviness, etc.) to ultimately form a comprehensive overview of different buyer personas. This step in the research also provided deeper knowledge regarding the development process of an e-commerce channel by exploring various e-commerce example cases within the dairy farming sector.

‘The research validated our assumption that e-commerce can play a critical role in providing nutritional health solutions directly to dairy farmers in Germany, while still maintaining the pivotal role of veterinarian in the process.
Nikolaus Brunner – Ruminant Health Business Manager

Another key step in the research involved interviewing various experts within the field of digital and German dairy farming. These key industry professionals provided very specific knowledge on how to reach the German dairy farmers through marketing, but also regarding key decision points within the process of developing an e-commerce platform. The expert interviews also acted as valuable input to validate and challenge our assumptions derived from the initial findings from the desk research.

‘This project confirmed that e-commerce is a suitable channel for the education of farmers. It’s a model we believe could have broader applications in global markets.’
David Muysson – Director TechMix International

Ultimately, the findings from both research methods were combined into a final deliverable consisting of two parts. The first part entailed a clear overview of the different buyer personas among German dairy farmers, their relationship towards e-commerce and implications for marketing. The second part involved actionable insights in the form of learnings and pitfalls when launching and developing an e-commerce channel, from strategy to communication. The final deliverables not only provided a roadmap for thee-commerce channel development, but also strengthened TechMix’s collaboration with their distribution partner, ensuring that the digital strategy added value to both of their market positions.

‘Hammer was very professional in every aspect of this project. They were respectful of our time and budgets and delivered concise and meaningful reports.’
David Muysson – Director TechMix International

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This article is written by Jerom van de Kraats