Understanding dealers’ forecasts and concerns, as well as the history of those sentiments, is the key to succeeding in the rural lifestyle market. The insights from the latest Ag Equipment Intelligence report in North America are intended to help farm machinery dealership businesses understand how to further penetrate the rural lifestyle equipment marketing and what this niche needs most from its equipment manufacturers and partners.
North American rural lifestyle dealers are forecasting 2025 revenues will improve following a tough year in 2024. These dealers, who serve homeowner, hobby farmers, landscape contractors and municipalities, had a strong 2022 and 2023 but 2024 proved to be a more challenging year than they had predicted due to a mix of supply chain issues, rising interest rates and increasing costs of new equipment. Rising interest rates continue to weigh on dealers, impacting their outlook for the year.
Looking at their areas of concern and optimism for the year, aftermarket once again stands out as a strong revenue opportunity. In the 2025 Rural Lifestyle Dealer Business Trends & Outlook report, nearly 95% of North American dealers forecast service revenue to be as good or better than 2024 and 96.4% of dealers expect the same to be true for their parts revenue.
The 2025 report showed 84.9% made a profit in 2024, which was up from 81% who said the same about 2023. However, their results were not quite as positive as they anticipated they would be heading into the year, with 60.7% of dealers reporting whole goods revenues were down at least 2% compared to 47.3% who had forecast that level of decline.
A larger percentage of dealers are forecasting whole goods revenue improvements for 2025 than are forecasting decreases. Despite the positive outlook, the impact rising interest rates will have on customers’ purchases once again tops the list of dealers’ top concerns, with 98.0% of dealers saying they were either concerned or most concerned. The increasing cost of new equipment came in at second on the list with 50.0% of dealers saying they were most concerned and 46.0% saying they were concerned.
You can order your copy of Ag Equipment Intelligence’s 2025 Rural Lifestyle Dealer Business Trends & Outlook report today and save 50% OFF the list price! https://www.farm-equipment.com/products/1817-2025-rural-lifestyle-dealer-business-trends-and-outlook?oly_enc_id=1461F7089434D4F
