B2B ecommerce is evolving. According to Forrester, the B2B ecommerce market will hit $1.8 trillion by 2023.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced B2B buyers and sellers to go digital to stay competitive. Before Covid-19, suppliers were attending seminars and events to network and promote their products. Once the lockdown started, many businesses struggled to promote their products at home and abroad. B2B ecommerce provided solutions for these businesses, and their popularity continues to increase.
Are you a small snacks wholesaler or a small factory owner struggling to promote your business? B2B marketplaces have enormous opportunities for both buyers and sellers. Explore your options with B2B marketplaces to scale your business.
Read on to find the advantages of selling on a B2B marketplace.
Advantages of B2B Marketplace
1. Reach a wider audience
Grow your reach without hiring additional staff or trade partners.
Localization and cross-border trade expertise can create challenges for you when it comes to international trade. You might need to hire a local agent to explain your products’ value to buyers in their own language. You may need to connect with different trade and logistic partners to facilitate your sale. All of this can cost you time and money. But B2B marketplaces cover these processes for you.
B2B marketplaces such as Amazon business, Alibaba.com, and Trustana.com have tons of buyers in different countries. These marketplaces allow you to reach overseas buyers and help you in facilitating the trade.
B2B marketplaces support localization. For example, they may help you change your product’s name and translate the description into the buyer’s local language. B2B marketplaces also provide various other services to facilitate the trade including logistical support and payment services.
Being a part of the B2B marketplace gives you an excellent opportunity to reach overseas markets without becoming an expert in cross-border trade.
2. Build your online presence
Building an online brand is one of the biggest challenges faced nowadays by small business owners. Most medium-sized businesses have established eCommerce stores, but small companies may be unable to start online stores due to limited resources.
Building an eCommerce store requires significant time and money. First, you need to choose the right platform for your online store and then spend time and money adding content and managing and promoting the site. You’d have to build up your search engine optimization (SEO) so that buyers can reach your site. It takes a few weeks or more to set up everything from scratch on your own and longer to build your SEO.
As part of a B2B marketplace, you save both the time and money you’d spend building your online store. These marketplaces have already done the groundwork. Most of the B2B marketplaces are search engine optimized, which provides better visibility for your products. All you need to do is create your account and add your products. Then you can start selling immediately. This whole process takes just a few hours.
Being a part of any online B2B marketplace helps you grow your online presence and gives you access to countless qualified buyers in your country and around the world.
3. Reduce your operational costs
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Marketing and promotional activities are one of the highest costs for any business owner. It starts with printing the product catalogs. Then you pay to promote your products through various channels such as newspapers, Google Ads, and participation in any online marketing event.
You can reduce these expenses by being part of a B2B marketplace.
Once you become a member of any B2B marketplace, you can create online catalogs to promote your products. You need not print product catalogs or brochures or spend money on traditional marketing channels to promote your products. You may also save the money you’d spend on expensive business trips worldwide to secure business deals and display the products in the tradeshows.
Most B2B marketplaces do require a small fee for membership. Others do not charge any membership fees, but they charge a reasonable service fee on every transaction. These costs are very affordable for any business owner. You save what you would otherwise spend building the online marketplace, and you get better visibility for your business.
4. Super easy set-up
You need not worry about using an online B2B marketplace. It’s as easy as using social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter.
First, create an account, then you can start adding your products to sell online.
Some B2B marketplaces like Trustana are super easy to use, and their team helps you in the onboarding process.
5. Test your new products
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Innovating new products is very important for the growth of any business. Even if your product is extraordinary now, over time your customers may outgrow your products. So you need to improve your products continuously.
B2B marketplaces are an ideal place for you to try your new products. You can sell newly launched products or offer free samples to your customers to test new ideas. You can also request your customers share feedback and reviews to get a clear picture of where your products stand.
6. Get ahead of the competition
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If you are a business owner exploring the B2B marketplace, then the biggest questions on your mind are probably What are the potential risks? And How much is the return on investment?
The good news is that there are almost no risks, and the returns could be huge. You will pay an affordable membership fee or the reasonable transaction service fee. In return for this small amount of money, you get access to a vast market in your country and overseas.
Every small business owner’s dream is to get ahead of the competition. If your competitors are traditional sellers, then being part of a B2B marketplace gives you access to new markets and new buyers, pushing you ahead of your competition.
7. Improve operational efficiency by moving your business online
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If you are a business owner who is exploring the B2B marketplace, then the biggest question in your mind will be "What are the potential risks, and how much is the return on investment?"
The good news is that there are almost no risks, and the returns could be huge. You need to spend on an affordable membership fee or the reasonable transaction service fee. In return for this small amount of money, you get access to a vast market in your country and overseas.
Also, every small business owner’s dream is to get ahead of the competition. If your competitors are traditional sellers, then being part of a B2B marketplace gives you access to new markets and new buyers, taking you ahead of your competition.
Key takeaways
Hopefully, now you will agree with the importance of selling on B2B marketplaces. Here we have listed the key takeaways from this article:
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- B2B marketplaces provide you access to a vast market in your country and around the world at a reasonable cost.
- Achieve operational efficiency at a lower cost with B2B marketplaces.
- With B2B marketplaces, you save the time and money you’d spend on building your online presence and gain trust fast.
- B2B marketplaces help you to build your online brand and get better visibility for your business.
- View real-time insights on products that help you make significant business and investment decisions through your B2B marketplace.