Agri-Inputs Store & Buying Groups
Inputs Store: For Advisers & Agents
What Inputs Store changes for agronomists, agents, vets and consultants.
Advisers need scoped access, defensible records and a way to work across a client base without re-keying. A multivendor input marketplace that starts from the farm's own nutrient and protection plan rather than a catalogue, compares products on active ingredient and nutrient cost rather than headline price, and supports group aggregation so smaller holdings can buy on terms usually reserved for large ones.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
Buying group manager
Aggregating members
Needs demand collected and committed before approaching suppliers.
- Generate requirement from the season plan
- Compare products on normalised cost
- Join or open a group aggregation
- Verify certification for restricted products
Input supplier
Vendor on the platform
Needs qualified demand rather than price-only enquiries.
- Compare products on normalised cost
- Join or open a group aggregation
- Verify certification for restricted products
- Place the order and agree delivery
Small holding operator
Below merchant minimum order
Needs group aggregation to access sensible pricing.
- Join or open a group aggregation
- Verify certification for restricted products
- Place the order and agree delivery
- Receive, check and record into stock
End to end
How Inputs Store runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Generate requirement from the season plan
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Compare products on normalised cost
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Join or open a group aggregation
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Verify certification for restricted products
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Place the order and agree delivery
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Receive, check and record into stock
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Feed usage into the application record
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Rate the supplier
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Inputs Store does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Multivendor catalogue for seed, fertiliser, crop protection, feed, minerals and sundries
- Requirement-led ordering generated from the nutrient and protection plans
- Normalised comparison on cost per kilogram of nutrient or per hectare treated
Operate and monitor
- Group buying with demand aggregation across participating holdings
- Authorisation and certification checking before a restricted product can be added to a basket
- Professional user verification for products requiring operator certification
Comply and evidence
- Delivery scheduling with farm access constraints and storage capacity checks
- Order history feeding directly into the stock and application records
- Price alert subscriptions against a target purchase price
Analyse and improve
- Supplier performance rating based on delivery accuracy and service
- Credit terms and account management with vendor-set limits
- Returns, damages and short-delivery workflow
Shopfront
Sell through inputs store
A storefront that already knows what you produce, because it reads your holding record. Assurance status, batch and provenance travel with every listing, so a buyer sees the evidence rather than a claim.
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Meat and dairy No listings yet Cold chain and use-by handling required
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Grain and flour No listings yet Sold by weight, priced per tonne
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Fruit and vegetables No listings yet Seasonal availability, grade declared
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Eggs and poultry No listings yet Registered packing centre code shown
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Drink No listings yet Duty status and ABV declared
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Wool and fibre No listings yet British Wool grade where applicable
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Inputs and seed No listings yet Authorisation number shown for treated seed
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Machinery No listings yet Hours, service history and V5C status
What the shopfront handles for you
- Collection, local delivery or carrier Rural postcodes are priced honestly rather than hidden at checkout.
- Weight-priced and graded goods A tonne of wheat and a box of eggs need different maths. Both are handled.
- Assurance carried through Red Tractor, organic certification and farm assurance status shown from the record, not typed in.
- Batch and provenance attached Every order can produce the traceability record behind it.
Worked example
How a business like yours would use Inputs Store
The problem: Wants to compare properly rather than accept the first quote.
What they do
- Generate requirement from the season plan
- Compare products on normalised cost
- Join or open a group aggregation
- Verify certification for restricted products
What changes
- Order value
- Saving against list price
- Group buy participation
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Order value
- 02Saving against list price
- 03Group buy participation
- 04Delivery accuracy
- 05Requirement-to-order conversion
Free tool
Run the numbers for your own holding
Enter your figures and get an answer you can act on, with the method shown so you can check it. Save the result to your account or take it away as a PDF.