Partnership enabled the integration of payment methods, stocks, hubs logistics and ERP management systems in order to unify and automate B2B processes
Brazil is rapidly advancing in the digitalization of agribusiness, driven by both the pandemic and family succession in companies, where new generations are more likely to invest in innovation. A survey by McKinsey & Company revealed that the use of digital media in Brazilian agribusiness increased from 36% before COVID-19 to 46% in 2021, a significant increase compared to 7% in the US and the European Union. This modernization has created a digital agricultural market that positively impacts the entire production chain.
It was with this new scenario in mind that the digital intercorporatist initiative Supercampo, formed by 11 of the 20 largest Brazilian agricultural cooperatives, entered into a partnership with VTEX, the e-commerce platform composable and complete, to digitalize the B2B operations of all its clients — Lar, Copacol, Agrária, Integrada, Castrolanda, Frísia, Capal, Cotrijal, Copercampos, Coopertradição and Coplacana. The announcement reinforces the trend and the growing need for agribusiness companies to seek technologies that facilitate communication between producers and the entire agro chain, optimizing processes, decision-making and business generation.
In practice, through the VTEX platform's B2B product suite, Supercampo began to integrate payment methods, SKUs (Stock Keeping Units), hubs logistics and ERP management systems of each of the 11 cooperatives, unifying and automating processes. Through this integration, it was possible to digitalize the commercial flows of all cooperative companies — from the purchase and sale of retail products B2C to the marketing of important inputs, such as feed, diesel oil and seeds, in the B2B model.
According to Fabio Schimidt, VP of Solutions Engineering VTEX, the partnership with Supercampo is an example of how technology can adapt to any segment, especially in agriculture, integrating the production chain, including rural producers, cooperatives and properties, all in a 100% digital environment. “We have developed a complete model for online business between cooperatives and producers, which represents the arrival of an unprecedented solution that significantly drives the digital transformation of Brazilian agribusiness.”
Traditional e-commerce platform models, until now, did not serve agribusiness cooperatives. This is because rural producers have different commercial conditions than end consumers or other companies – naturally, in traditional channels, producers need to choose whether to purchase using their CPF or CNPJ data. “For example, it is necessary to take into account the government's tax benefits in each location for exemption from taxes such as ICMS. This way, rural producers can purchase using their CPF, invoice using their CNPJ and be parameterized according to the tax rules of the state of origin of the purchase”, explains the VP.
In the case of a rural producer with many properties, different tax parameters are required for each region at the time of purchase. Therefore, when logging into the e-commerce platform, this owner needs to identify the store where the product will be picked up and which property will be billed for the order. “It seems simple, but the project gave visibility to an entire group that was not being considered by the sales platforms available on the market,” explains Schimidt.
Leandro Carvalho, CEO of Supercampo. Credit: Torin Zanette
According to Schimidt, another major challenge that Supercampo posed to VTEX was the need to redefine the entire purchasing experience for rural producers, considering the fact that they are always on the farm and many do not use their smartphones very often. “Based on the analysis of Supercampo’s needs, we designed an architecture that meets this scenario and provides a fluid purchasing process, regardless of the business model, be it a marketplace, physical store, corporate sales or sales to the end consumer. Something that was only possible with VTEX’s architecture and the support of an ecosystem of diverse partners,” explained the executive.
For Leandro Carvalho, CEO of Supercampo, the partnership was essential to boost the cooperatives’ business without eliminating their physical presence. “We implemented several features, such as integrated checkout, multiple delivery and pickup scenarios, quotes, bulk orders, sales cycles, product suggestions, automatic inventory synchronization, among others. With the system, everyone benefits from faster, more reliable, better portfolio quality and prices, with the goal of connecting rural producers with the best business opportunities,” said the CEO.
Partnership that generated impact
By digitizing cooperatives' inventories and selling more than 120,000 available products through different channels, Supercampo directly benefits 100,000 members of these 11 cooperatives. In 2023, Supercampo processed 170 million GMV, an acronym for Gross Merchandise Volume.
Supercampo members highlighted the ease of purchasing, quick pick-up, and access to the cooperative's entire portfolio in the palm of their hand as some of the benefits. With digitalization, the more than one thousand salespeople in the 300 physical stores began to see digital platforms as sales tools that boost their own results. The platform also encourages salespeople to be proactive, as they can actively make sales and serve multiple customers simultaneously, thus increasing their sales performance.
For Schimidt, the adoption of technology transforms and facilitates the way of doing business. “In a very practical way, sellers can now collect orders, create shopping carts and share links via WhatsApp with farmers, so that they can review and approve purchases. All of this ease is only possible through API configurations within the VTEX platform,” he said.
Among the gains provided by the platform composable and complete from VTEX and already proven by Supercampo cooperatives are the reduction of fixed costs and a greater return on investment (ROI).
