Things have changed in the dynamic B2B commerce world.
Frost & Sullivan predicts that the global B2B e-commerce sales will reach over US$6.6 trillion by 2020, surpassing business-to-consumer (B2C) valued at US$3.2 trillion by 2020.
In Asia, Forrester haspredicted a growth of 12.1 per cent per annum in B2B e-commerce with B2B marketplace being the prevalent mode of business. The adoption of B2B marketplace is booming especially in Southeast Asia, China and India.
With names such as Ralali, Global Sources, and Zilingo, B2B is booming with reasons to borrow from their success path.
So what are the common underlying key success factors of these B2B marketplaces?
The chief criteria underlying the success these B2B marketplaces were transparency, market visibility, and a plethora of business solutions to their buyers and sellers. Here are four success factors which we believe has made them successful.
Adoption of an omni-channel strategy
These B2B e-commerce sites and marketplaces also have self-servicing functioning that offered its customers an omnichannel experience to easily access any information about the products they wish to purchase on any platform. Moreover, both buyers and sellers are assured to make safe payment transactions via a systematic and secure payment method.
Embed customer-centric processes
Many customers come into the B2B marketplace scene with prior experience of convenient omnichannel B2C e-commerce sites. With this preceding expectation, they alter their processes to readily meet the needs and expectations of incoming buyers and sellers.
Easy to use platform with great user experience
Ease of use is a table stake to reach marketplace users but not an easy feat in B2B. Unlike B2C shoppers, B2B shoppers have a slightly different buying experience as they are compensated as part of their job to do so.
They prefer not to spend hours browsing through websites and catalogue to find what is needed, especially if it is a recurring purchase. Often, they are on a budget that could be subjected to a pre-approval limit or require request approval before purchase could be made.
Therefore, today’s B2B marketplaces make a specific impact on such features as requests for quotes, bulk ordering, custom pricing, as well as personalisation features to create an almost self-servicing B2B user experience.
For example, India’s JimTrade’s simple registration process ensures certain platform features to be streamlined easily in order to improve user experience, while IndiaMART has been investing in a lead management system since 2017 to help the suppliers better manage the leads generated.
Augment platform with solutions to create strong ecosystem delivery
Successful B2B marketplaces collaborate with other platforms or solutions to develop new offerings, manage customer experiences or filling gaps in existing business and supply chain processes.
For example, Zilingo announced last October that part of its US$100 million investment will leverage smart technology-led solutions to offer financial services solutions including unlocked credit, working capital financing and insurance to its ecosystem users. A second example would be smart warehousing.
Smart warehousing is warehouses that are manned by drones and robots to help sort, scan and move goods. By seamlessly integrating new technologies with warehouse systems, smart warehousing help to boost efficiency, productivity and cut costs.
OfficeMate invested over US$33 million in 2019 to develop smart warehouse capabilities with a clear objective to upgrade service quality and deliver a better user experience.
Also Read: A beginner’s guide to the B2B e-commerce business
No matter which industries these B2B marketplaces service, there is an underlying baseline for success: Offer an easy to use and optimised platform, recruit wide-ranging suppliers to offer a wide range of products and services, and as well, to further accentuate the perks of your marketplace.
It is also important to take into consideration an optimal commercial fee that is suitable for your market landscape to best monetise your e-commerce platform. All these attributes add as building blocks to the success of your e-commerce marketplace.
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