B2C platforms have long since benefitted from having marketplaces that aggregate products and services from various companies to be sold from a single place. This has been the business model of well-known companies like Craigslist, Amazon, and Alibaba. One would expect the same to apply to B2B companies, and it does, but these marketplaces aren’t yet as widespread as B2C marketplaces. They are also quite different from B2C marketplaces in their operations and how they make money due to the complex nature of B2B transactions.
B2B marketplaces can be grouped into two major categories; product marketplaces and service marketplaces.
Most of the common operating systems we've come to know and use have their marketplaces. There's the App Store for iOS, Play Store for Android, and Windows Store for Windows, but these are all B2C marketplaces. Hence, there's a need for similar platforms that can cater to the peculiar requirements of B2B transactions. Below are some advantages of B2B marketplaces.
While B2B marketplaces might appear to benefit only those making purchases, sellers also have access to more clients. Marketplaces serve as a central point for sellers who want to widen their client base and for businesses who need certain services and want options to choose from.
There are some activities associated with B2B transactions such as price negotiations, bulk discount negotiations, sales meetings, and so on, that lengthen the sales cycle of B2B transactions. SaaS B2B transactions don’t have most of these problems though, and the ones therein are resolved with the use of a marketplace.
SaaS marketplaces can also provide key analytics related to your sales or purchases, as the case may be. It also allows buyers to track delivery, setup, time, and costs on projects being carried out by a seller from the marketplace.
B2B SaaS marketplaces like Bitbaza are becoming more relevant as businesses rethink how they search for products and services. The ease of finding and discovering products and services (for buyers) and gaining clients (for sellers) is one of the key selling points of B2B marketplaces for businesses involved in B2B transactions. The entire procurement process is also considerably easier for both the buyer and the seller. In fact, for some buyers and sellers, this is their primary reason for using a B2B marketplace.
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