How to build a B2B marketplace for dealer-distributors-based enterprise business

The business-to-business ecommerce sector is no less than an ocean of opportunities, all you have to do is ride the wave by building your B2B marketplace. After all, you also want to set your business on a journey of exploration and growth. Don’t you?

Building your online presence with a B2B distributor marketplace is the sure-shot way to carve a niche for your dealer-distributors-based enterprise business.

But if you are unaware of the market dynamics and have a lot of queries that are delaying your decision, you are just at the right spot.

To help you win the game, StoreHippo brings out a complete blueprint to build a B2B marketplace platform, answering all your questions in detail.  

Let us start by analyzing where the business-to-business ecommerce in India stands:

• $200 billion is the estimated opportunity of India’s Business-to-Business (B2B) online marketplace by 2030
• 100% FDI is permitted for B2B e-commerce businesses
• 90%+ of B2B organizations have moved to sell through digital channels
• 74% of B2B buyers feel buying from a B2B website is easier than buying offline 
• 80% of interactions to happen online between buyers and sellers by 2025

Source: Financial express, Statista

As for the numbers, we bet you got the idea! 

There was a time when business-to-business operations were handled offline, but fast forward to the present, it's time for a drumroll.

We are going to delve deep into building your B2B ecommerce platform India. Let us start by answering all your questions in detail. 

1. What is a B2B distributor marketplace?

A B2B distributor marketplace is an online wholesalers marketplace where your enterprise brand’s manufactured goods can be sold to retailers, wholesalers, or different manufacturers through a network of distributors for your B2B company. These distributors can be onboarded on your multi vendor B2B marketplace as sellers.

Along with the main business-to-business marketplace website you can also set up location-based sub-stores for each distributor or dealer and manage all such sub-stores from a common central admin. Building a chain of B2B distributor marketplace stores is the best way to streamline your operations and makes your entire sales and fulfillment process more efficient and less time-consuming. 

2. Is building a B2B marketplace good for my business?

Yes, absolutely. Building a B2B distributor marketplace for your business no doubt reaps benefits. With the entire business-to-business industry moving to online platforms, digitizing your enterprise business yields great results. B2B ecommerce is the key to increased sales and profit margins and it also polishes your relationships with your customers (manufacturers or distributors).

Here are a few benefits of building a B2B ecommerce platform India for your enterprise brand:

• Better and bigger reach as your business is now open round the clock
• Increase in the sales count with better marketing solutions 
• Faster, smoother and streamlined operations for increased business efficiency 
• Access to rich customer data to create customized shopping experience 
• Better brand engagement with multiple marketing tools at your disposal
• Easy and automated management of customers, orders, supplies, etc  
• Access to customers data and business insights for strategic planning

Going phygital and creating a B2B marketplace for your dealer-distributor based enterprise business is a wise idea. But how do you plan to build your marketplace? First things first, you need a feature-rich ecommerce platform that helps build the most engaging wholesale marketplaces. StoreHippo ecommerce platform in India comes with wholesome features that are best suited to handle the complex business requirements.  

3. What is the best way to build a B2B marketplace?

There is more than one way to build a B2B distributor marketplace for your enterprise business. Let us look at both methods and evaluate the best way forward:

• You can build your marketplace from scratch with a team of high-end developers and coders
• Or, you can use a turnkey ecommerce platform to build your marketplaces

Out of the two mentioned methods, most enterprise brands are choosing to go with an ecommerce platform. Building a marketplace from scratch does not only require extra time and effort but can also be costly. When you put together a team of IT professionals to create a marketplace in India, you need to invest your time, energy, and money which can be cut down substantially by going with a turnkey ecommerce solution provider. 

Here are a few reasons that make using an off-the-shelf ecommerce solution provider a beneficial choice for building your B2B distributor marketplace:

• Cost-effective solution as there's no recurring cost of coding involved 
• Scope for rapid business growth with scalable solutions 
• Provides inherent flexibility to make quick business changes as required 
• Easy to seamlessly integrate with various third-party software
• Automated business operations for efficient management

To build a conversion-oriented, profitable chain of multiple dealer-based B2B marketplace stores, you need a robust ecommerce website builder that offers the best-in-class B2B ecommerce solution. StoreHippo is a 360-degree ecommerce platform built on MACH architecture that gives better creative control to build tailored solutions for your dealer-distributors-based enterprise business. 

4. How much time will it take to build a B2B marketplace?

Building a B2B multi-seller portal from scratch can take up to 2 years based on the customizations and unique flows of a large-scale wholesale business. While this route can be good for some businesses, given the changing market dynamics opting for turnkey B2B marketplace platform that can speed up your go to market time is a better option.

An off-the-shelf feature-rich B2B ecommerce solution provider is a good way to roll out your wholesale marketplace website faster. While there can be no fixed time frame, the first cut of your website can be rolled out in a few weeks instead of years. To create your tailored solution you might need additional time which can vary based on your requirements and customization capabilities of the platform you choose.

StoreHippo's cutting-edge technology helps you take your dealer-distributors-based enterprise business to the Indian ecommerce market in just a few weeks. You can get your marketplace up and running in 4-6 weeks if no major customizations are involved. Once you have built your marketplace, fine-tuning your website and customizing the unique business flow for your enterprise brand might need a few more weeks depending on your requirements.

5. What will be the overall cost of building a B2B distributor marketplace?

The overall cost of building a B2B distributor marketplace from scratch varies depending on the kind of business you are looking to build. The extra features and integrations that you require for seamless business operations, the technology you need to future-proof your business, etc define the costs. However, on an average, the estimate is around $1,35,000 to $1,90,00 and higher. A more cost-efficient alternative is to go for a turnkey B2B ecommerce platform with a subscription model that can get you started at a friction of the cost. Depending on the personalized requirements for your B2B business, you can pick and choose from the available enterprise ecommerce platform India. 

StoreHippo B2B marketplace platform offers cost-effective and feature-rich marketplace software for your enterprise business. The cost for building a marketplace depends on the type of distributor marketplace you are looking to create and build and the customizations needed. There are no additional costs involved in making Android and iOS apps for your enterprise business with StoreHippo. For more detailed information, you can drop a mail to the StoreHippo support team and they will connect with you to understand your B2B marketplace requirements. 

6. What kind of tech architecture is ideal for building a B2B distributor marketplace?

Creating an online B2B dealership network requires next-gen technology so that you build a future-proof solution for your brand. You need the right technology that is well-equipped to handle the complexities and the diverse requirements of B2B businesses. A advanced architecture that is scalable and flexible is the ideal choice for building a B2B distributor marketplace in India.  

StoreHippo ecommerce solution is built on future-ready MACH (micro-services, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless) architecture that offers inherent flexibility and scalability for your enterprise business. You can build tailor-made solutions and also tweak the platform inside-out to seamlessly create new entities without having to disturb the entire system. StoreHippo offers in-built support for various B2B businesses in India where you can build multiple storefronts, multilingual distributor marketplace, offer customized pricing, etc. StoreHippo offers a highly secure B2B ecommerce solution that secures the transactions by PCI-DSS compliant payment gateways, offering data encryptions, audit trials, etc. Your wholesale business is safe and secure with enterprise level features offered by StoreHippo.    

7. Will it be difficult for my dealers/distributors and other service providers to use the admin of my B2B marketplace?

No, it depends on the solution provider and its interface. StoreHippo multi vendor B2B marketplace solutions come with an easy-to-use ecommerce solution for different teams, vendors, distributors, delivery agents, service providers etc. 

StoreHippo offers separate dashboards for dealers and distributors to seamlessly manage their own business operations. The gamut of features offered by the StoreHippo ecommerce platform India helps managing every aspect of your wholesale ecommerce business. With easy product management features, orders and inventory management solutions, features to manage shipping, returns and refunds, etc., each dealer/distributor, and other service providers can easily use the admin of your business-to-business marketplace. 

8. Can we integrate our existing software and service providers into the new B2B marketplace platform? 

As you build your B2B multi seller marketplace in India, you need the right solutions and software to handle the complexities of multi-level business operations. StoreHippo ecommerce solutions offer 120+ pre-integrated solutions and you can also seamlessly integrate with the preferred software and the best-in-breed solutions to help with efficient operations of the business. You can seamlessly integrate with the right software and tools as required by your business, like ERP, CRM, accounting, marketing, logistics, etc. The API-based architecture by StoreHIppo enables you to integrate third-party tools and apps in just a few easy steps.   

9. Is there a solution to manage tax compliances on our B2B distributor marketplace?

Yes, you can manage tax compliances on your chain of B2B distributor marketplace with StoreHippo’s in-built tax-engine for multi-level taxation. You can add different tax percentages for each GST component and simplify and automate your taxes with full support for GST, CGST, SGST and inter-state IGST. You can also set different tax-based rules based on product, HSN and SAC codes with StoreHippo.

 It also enables you to set tax rules based on the order amount, location(state or country), service type, product type, sellers etc. or any other criteria applicable to the products and services sold on your ecommerce marketplace. Your dealers and distributors can also apply different GST tax rules in a multi seller marketplace for a multi-dealer order.  

10. What payment options can we offer on our B2B distributor marketplace?

You can seamlessly offer a frictionless checkout process to your customers on your B2B marketplace platform with StoreHippo. The B2B transactions are more complex and lengthy than it seems. However, with StoreHippo’s full spectrum of payment solutions, you can offer faster payments. How? For example, you can offer a certain discount to the B2B customers who pay instantly. You can offer your customers easy payment options that are aligned with mobile payments and digital wallets. 

StoreHippo offers 60+ pre-integrated payment gateways to help you offer your customers the choice to choose their own payment option. You can integrate multiple payment options like mobile wallets, card payments, etc. 

Conclusion

To successfully build a B2B marketplace for your dealer-distributor-based enterprise, you need to choose your solution provider after due deliberation and make an informed choice. You need to adapt and transform for the long-term benefit of your business, which can only be done with a futuristic, feature-rich B2B ecommerce platform India. 

To make the most of the burgeoning B2B ecommerce sector in India, StoreHippo offers the right tools and solutions for your successful enterprise business. The 360-degree ecommerce solution makes it easy for you to build a conversion-oriented B2B marketplace and keep your customers hooked to the brand. StoreHippo offers in-built support for various industries across the B2B segment.

All set to create your B2B distributor marketplace with StoreHippo? Explore the enterprise-grade features by starting your 14-day free trial now.