Traditional offline purchasing and procurement is changing and being replaced by the B2B marketplace. Fully business-to-business oriented, a B2B marketplace is an online environment, typically run on a digital platform designed to make the business smarter. These marketplaces make it simpler to meet the supply and procurement needs of the organisation by allowing companies to view different offers, compare product quality and find the best price.
Why is this approach gaining popularity?
Purchasing via a marketplace, like Eezee, Microaquire, Microsoft Azure Marketplace and AWS Marketplace, offers businesses a quick and simple experience, eliminating the traditional buying pains that come with B2B transactions. This rise of B2B marketplaces is garnering particular interest in the technology industry because buying software solutions via these marketplaces offers clear advantages for both buyers and sellers. For sellers, advantages include having a wider reach, faster adoption and simpler allocation of resources. And for customers, the streamlining and automating of procedures makes the purchasing process more efficient than ever before.
A B2B marketplace also enables businesses to stay ahead of their competitors because this digital portal is available at all times; meaning that your sales no longer rely on the availability of a sales team, empowering you to serve a wider, international market.
The customer experience
Back in 2013, Walker Consulting predicted that customer experience would be the key differentiator between B2B businesses by 2020. A quick review of the current market reveals that Walker Consulting were definitely onto something. Recent studies consistently show that customer experience is critical in the B2B realm. According to a recent Accenture survey, 90% of B2B executives believe achieving the business’ key strategic priorities comes down to delivering a positive customer experience.
Historically, B2B purchasing has been very difficult. In order to be successful, these marketplaces need to offer a quick, easy, cost-effective and secure buying experience. If you found this post helpful, you can read more content like this on our blog. And every month, we bring our latest business strategy, digital and innovation posts together to create our Nebula Insights newsletter. Want access to it? Subscribe below.