Implementing E-Commerce model for Agricultural Produce: A Research Roadmap

The advancement in technology and the increase in usage of Internet access has revolutionized the landscape of agriculture using E-Commerce. Several E-Commerce websites are operative in India to promote uniformity in agricultural marketing across the integrated markets by removing information asymmetry between buyers and sellers. Stakeholders are reluctant to utilize this new technology for trading agricultural produces in spite of close opportunities. Pricing mechanism of the online trading portals neither generates maximum revenue during high demand and less supply nor ensures minimum loss due to the decay or down selling of the products. Static pricing mechanism prevents the sellers from joining this online system, as it does not provide many benefits to an online customer. A continuous adjustable dynamic pricing mechanism that can adapt the market condition and quality degradation is crucial for maintaining the seller revenue and customer interest. This paper explains several existing dynamic pricing mechanisms and analyzes their relevance in the field of agro-marketing. In this paper, several research challenges on dynamic pricing approach of E-Commerce have been summarized. The factors like demand, supply, and freshness of the agri-products must be considered for the development of a pricing mechanism in the dynamic environment of E-Commerce.