Online opportunities: A quantitative content analysis benchmark study of online retail plant sales

    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Baker, Lauri M. (author), Boyer, Cheryl R. (author), Peterson, Hikaru Hanawa (author), King, Audrey E.H. (author), and Kansas State University University of Minnesota, St. Paul
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2018-08
    URL:
    https://journals.ashs.org/horttech/view/journals/horttech/28/4/article-p516.xml
    Published:
    United States: American Society for Horticultural Science
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 11 Document Number: D10334
    Journal Title:
    HortTechnology
    Journal Title Details:
    28(4) : 516-523
    Subject Term:
    horticulture, market analysis, marketing research, productivity, reports, retail, rural interests, sales, sales methods, e-commerce, efficiency, Amazon, online direct selling, ODS, and small businesses
    Notes:
    8 pages., Via online journal., Online, direct selling (ODS) has become the leading way that people acquire goods, with Amazon (Seattle, WA) being the largest online vendor in the United States. This study sought to determine if horticultural businesses were engaging in ODS with Amazon, ebay, and other websites. Researchers examined the ODS activity of 498 businesses using quantitative content analysis methods, and found that 93 horticultural industry businesses were conducting some form of ODS through their websites, but only four offered products on Amazon. Results indicate that ODS remains an untapped marketplace for the horticultural industry, particularly for small, rural businesses.

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