Increasing Three Times the Selling Price of Horticultural Products Using Social Media

Abstract

This study aims to determine the benefits of social media as a tool to market horticulture products in Bulukerto Village, at Batu City, East Java-Indonesia. The intended benefit of this study is to find out whether there is an increase in sales price result or profit that received by the farmers using social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This study is conducted by applying a qualitative approach. Data are obtained through in-depth interviews from the relevant informants with judgmental sampling. One of the criteria of the selected informants is that they only make changes in marketing their products with social media to increase their products prices. The results of this study indicate that there are significantly large selling price, as received by farmers. Greater profits are obtained by farmers driven by the role of utilizing social media to cut long distribution channels, so that farmers can meet with end consumers directly. Before marketing the product by using social media, the product price obtained amounted to only IDR. 5,000/kg, while a er using social media the price increased to approximately IDR. 10,000 to IDR 15,000/kg.