Online B2B marketplaces are the fastest-growing digital marketing channel in B2B eCommerce. The popularity of marketplaces is growing as they make, buy, and sell products.
We will discuss how you can implement online B2B marketplaces into your eCommerce business strategy. But before that, let’s understand the eCommerce strategy.
What is an eCommerce strategy?
eCommerce strategy is a complete process based on steps to promote your online business. The intent behind this is to generate leads and increase sales for your business.
Let’s discuss some essential steps to implement a successful eCommerce strategy:
- Define your objectives
- Conduct market research
- Know your audience
- Strengthen your team
- Promote business on multiple channels
Define your objectives
Your strategy is incomplete if you haven’t set up a goal. You must have an objective in mind before you can design your strategy around it. Your objective can be:
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- Promoting your business
- Generating leads
- Driving sales
- Spreading brand awareness
Conduct market research
Before implementing a strategy, it is very important to conduct a complete research on the market. You need to collect past data that you can use to analyze the present state of the eCommerce market.
Study your competitors. Observe their ways of dealing with the customers and their marketing strategies. Understand the strengths and weaknesses in their business to make a strong decision. Once your research phase is complete, you can implement your strategy.
Know your audience
If you want to sell a product or service, you should be able to know your target market. Knowing your audience is to conduct surveys of your target audience. First, ask for their feedback on the products or services they are using. Then, define their needs and present a suitable solution.
The next thing you need to do is to create a persona for your target buyer. You need to understand various factors of your buyers for your ideal buyer, which include:
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- Buying Habits
- Company Size and Revenue
- Demographics
- Employment
- Income
- Objectives
Strengthen your team
Align your sales and marketing teams to expand your online business. Your team should work together for fruitful results. Train your team completely so they can educate your buyers accordingly.
Promote business on multiple channels.
The majority of B2B buyers prefer to buy from multiple digital channels. Research firm and consultant McKinsey & Company reports that buyers use more than ten digital channels during their buying journey. Some of the multiple digital channels with high traffic and good return on investment (ROI) are:
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- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Search engine marketing via:
- Pay-per-click model
- Search engine optimization
- Social media marketing via:
- YouTube
These tactics are very successful but require much time and investment. Most small-scale businesses can neither afford to put in much effort nor invest substantial amounts. Online B2B marketplaces are the easiest platforms for these sellers to promote their businesses.
If you integrate your B2B marketplaces into your eCommerce strategy, you can achieve your goals with less investment and time. But first, let’s discuss the common features of online B2B marketplaces.
Features of Online B2B Marketplaces
Digital Storefront
Marketplaces let sellers set up their digital storefronts. Sellers upload their products and create product catalogs on their online stores.
Lead Generation
You must work hard to generate more leads if you are running your eCommerce website. However, it is not much harder with online B2B marketplaces. These marketplaces provide a platform for sellers to connect with a large pool of buyers and communicate with them.
Access to maximum buyers generates more leads for your business and has a higher probability of converting into sales.
Extended Outreach
B2B marketplaces promote your businesses by showcasing your businesses and products on their home pages.
Progress Tracking
Marketplaces offer seller dashboards where sellers can track their sales progress to analyze and forecast future sales. Dashboards also view customer data, inventory tracking, sales and purchase orders, and different analytics.
Popular Online B2B Marketplaces
B2B marketplaces have proven to be successful platforms for sellers to grow businesses, with total sales expected to reach $130 billion this year.
Now, discuss the popular online B2B marketplaces you can integrate into your eCommerce strategy.
Alibaba
Alibaba is the world’s largest online B2B marketplace. It features a beautifully designed storefront and facilitates Chinese sellers to promote their products to buyers worldwide.
The major benefits of Alibaba to sellers are:
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- Insights and forecasting based on past and present industry trends
- Keyword-based online marketing
- Online trade shows
- Product showcases
- Request for quotation feature
SeeBiz
SeeBiz is a trend-setting one of kind wholesale marketplace. It is the first business networking platform for the B2B community. Manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers can connect and share their products and latest announcements.
The B2B community can share and gain relevant information and expand their business network with this platform.
It is also the first B2B platform to introduce the group pricing feature for sellers. Sellers can create groups, assign different buyers, and assign different prices to different groups. With it, sellers can retain their old pricing agreements with their previous buyers while negotiating new prices with new buyers.
SeeBiz creates a well-designed storefront for the sellers, which helps you to establish brand identity. Other benefits include:
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- Feature your store on the homepage
- Introduction of your business through videos
- Presentation of your product images with better filters
- Promotion of your business on Google Ads with a campaign worth $200
- Showcase your best products in the store
Amazon Business
Amazon Business is the B2B marketplace by Amazon which offers products and services. Having amassed 1 billion in sales within a year after its launching, Amazon Business has currently reached annual sales of $25 billion worldwide.
Amazon Business has the following benefits:
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- Business pricing
- Profile dashboard with enhanced features
- Quantity discount
- Request for quotation
Conclusion
B2B marketplaces have been a source of good revenue with diverse market outreach for sellers due to having a large number of buyers. So, begin selling on online B2B marketplaces to succeed in your eCommerce strategy completely.
