ECommerce has become a hugely vital component of business operations today. However, despite its growing popularity, there are still several doubts and misconceptions surrounding the B2B eCommerce marketplace model.
B2B eCommerce can benefit businesses and companies of all sizes as it offers a range of benefits such as faster and more efficient ordering processes, real-time inventory updates, hub-and-spoke arrangements, and 24/7 accessibility to many more global markets. By aligning with a B2B eCommerce platform, businesses can streamline their processes, reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction, regardless of their size and scale.
B2B eCommerce is not limited to physical products. Many businesses, including service providers and digital product sellers, can also benefit from an eCommerce platform. In the past, B2B eCommerce was primarily associated with the sale of physical goods, but with the advancement of technology and the rise of digital transformation, B2B eCommerce has expanded to include a wider range of offerings.
Some B2B eCommerce businesses can be highly profitable with lower customer acquisition costs and higher average order values, while others may take longer to generate profits due to a more complex sales cycle and higher operating costs.
In B2B eCommerce, businesses sell their products and services to other businesses, typically in larger quantities. This results in a higher average order value (AOV) and overall revenue per customer, which contributes to improved profit margins over time. Furthermore, B2B customers often have longer customer lifecycles, leading to repeat business and a more stable customer base.
These days, good eCommerce marketplace platforms provide a range of features and functionalities that go beyond a simple website, including:
- Inventory management: Allows businesses to track and manage their inventory levels, product information, and order fulfillment.
- Pricing: Enables businesses to set and manage different pricing tiers and discounts for different customers or products.
- Customer relationship management (CRM): Helps businesses manage and track customer interactions, orders, and communication.
- Payment processing: Offers secure and seamless payment processing for customers.
- Order tracking: Allows customers to track the status of their orders and receive notifications on shipping and delivery.
- Training modules : these include trainings on how to use the site, how to become digital sales specialists, as well as information and videos on new products and categories.
- Cyber security : Good b2b ecommerce online platforms offer top of line cyber security
Digital technologies are turbocharging companies’ clock speeds. Recent increases in processing power, decreases in the costs of data capture and storage, and high quality connectivity are allowing companies to gather data in real time, analyze it, and act quickly using data-driven insights.
Since data is always being touted as the new oil to run economies, it’s time for good organizations to break down the walls of data silos and embrace a more integrated and collaborative approach to data management.
Eliminating data silos is a crucial step for organizations to improve their business operations. By implementing a centralized data management system, organizations can have a complete picture of their supply chain and customer interactions. This not only helps to streamline processes but also enables better decision-making, faster response times, and improved customer satisfaction. Aligning buying via good quality b2b ecommerce platforms aids in this process.
Research suggests that, as at the end of 2021, total internet users across the world are over 5.07 billion while the number of smartphone users has touched 5.48 billion. These two growth numbers support the argument that more and more business is shifting online.
What is of critical importance is that today’s B2B buyers are younger. Globally, almost 60 percent are between the ages of 26 and 40 years old, and they expect the B2B buying experience to mirror their B2C journeys. Hence, good B2B ecommerce online platforms will need to create superb mobile apps which mirror some of the best in B2C.
Customer experience supports B2B firms with recurring revenue and bolsters their valuable reputations in the market. Changing economic conditions, crowded markets, and the consumer-driven buyer will only push more in this direction. Therefore, marketers will need to seriously upskill themselves. They will need to have an even sharper focus on retention, expansion of customer base, upsell and loyalty.
Going forward, perhaps the greatest, untapped opportunity area could be in the refurbished devices space. More so, since sustainability, circular economy and ESG are the most talked about words.