Owe it to the global economic meltdown or the increasing use of the Web, more and more companies and organizations are shifting their focus to online avenues of business procurement. B2B marketplaces are the best spots to make a start!
Businesses are increasingly realizing the enormous potential of B2B marketplaces. B2B marketplaces have completed revamped the way business is done online. In fact,
many businesses that have made B2B marketplaces their primary sales channel have witnessed a tremendous improvement in their productivity as well as profitability.
What is a B2B Marketplace?
A B2B marketplace - short for ‘Business to Business Marketplace’ - is an online platform where buyers and sellers can interact, collaborate and conduct business transactions with each other. The main aim of a B2B marketplace is to act as a common platform for businesses to communicate and to give businesses unique and valuable tools and features to carry outbusiness transactions with ease.
How can B2B Marketplaces help your Business?
Here are some compelling reasons why you should start using B2B marketplaces sooner (rather than later):
Access to a Large Community of Buyers & Sellers
Whether you are seeking to buy products or services or are seeking to find other businesses who would be interested in buying products or services from your business, B2B marketplaces are the best place to be. B2B marketplaces give you access to a large community of buyers and sellers, all of whom are using the marketplace for the same reason you are. This gives you an excellent opportunity to expand your business and to find new customers and suppliers.
Quicker Decision Making
A good B2B marketplace will allow buyers to browse through a list of suppliers and service providers and compare and research what they are offering, without leaving the website. Accordingly, good B2B marketplaces acts like a “one stop shop” where buyers can obtain instant information regarding key aspects of another company’s business and, therefore, make faster and more informed purchasing decisions. Many B2B marketplaces also have unique Profile pages for businesses that are integrated with their company website. This further helps buyers to compare different companies and make faster decisions.
Unique Profile Pages
A good B2B marketplace will provide its members with a unique Profile page so that the member can showcase its business and products and services. These Profile pages are often very efficient user interfaces, with good navigation, search and integration capabilities that facilitate real-time handling of buying & selling transactions. With Profile pages, buyers can quickly and easily locate and contact suppliers and service providers about their potential business needs.
Accelerated Selling Process
The sales chain of many B2B marketplaces include a variety of tools to increase efficiency in selling products or services, such as quotation, negotiation, billing and shipment tracking. Since the sales process is usually entirely electronic, processing costs are significantly reduced and document errors are minimized.
Easier Purchase Process
On the other side of the coin, the ‘purchasing’ process is also enhanced by B2B emarktplaces. Most e-marketplaces allow businesses to conduct business procurement online i.e. the buyers procure their sourcing needs over the internet. This process of e-procurement has numerous advantages. Because of the online nature of proceedings, transactions costs are reduced and purchasing periods are shortened. In addition, many B2B e-marketplaces will allow a company’s employees to purchase through the account of the company – an excellent way to monitor and check the purchasing habits of employees and monitor internal spending costs of the company. The entire purchase process becomes a great deal easier with B2B e-marketplaces.
Disclaimer : Sabra Easterday is the owner and founder of MatchB2B (matchb2b.net). Sabra is also a lawyer with a special interest in business issues and e-marketplaces. Notwithstanding that Sabra Easterday is a lawyer, nothing in this article and no services of MatchB2B or its website are legal services and no attorney-client relationship exists between any reader of this article or user, customer or potential customer of MatchB2B, and MatchB2B, its website or Sabra Easterday.
