Since Amazon has launched its successful B2B platform Amazon business, it has become a phenomenon to reckon with in the industry. It has grown from $1 billion to $10 billion in sales (source) in only three years. The more surprising fact is the growing number of businesses opting for B2B marketplaces. According to a study by Gartner, over 70% of the launched marketplaces will serve B2B transactions by 2023.
This success is not about Amazon here. But it is more about the distributors, manufacturers, and retailers who get onboarded to the store and make it a huge success. The main differentiator is the ability of B2B marketplace to attract these visitors every day. So, before we dive into the most compelling ways to attract visitors,
Table of Contents
Let’s understand how to build a B2B marketplace website
Step 1: Decide the core idea of the B2B model you are looking for. Consider the pros and cons to decide on your choice of a profitable B2B marketplace.
Step 2: Choose a brand name for your business and register it. Preferably, the name should reflect the core of your business.
Step 3: Complete your paperwork to comply with the legal rules and regulations.
Step 4: Buy a business domain and make your presence online before you actually enter into the world of B2B marketplace.
Step 5: Choose a B2B ecommerce solution provider (A software development company or a ready-to-use solution or a combination) to get started with your enterprise website.
Step 6: Mark your presence in front of distributors, manufacturers and suppliers and onboard them on your online marketplace.
Step 7: Setup a customer support team that assists your customers with their queries, orders, and more.
Step 8: Go live with your marketplace website and start creating a buzz through marketing campaigns and shout aloud on social media.
Step 9: Start earning commissions on every order placed on your B2B marketplace website.
Attracting distributors and manufacturers to your online marketplace
The online marketplace leaders adopt various techniques to acquire manufacturers and distributors and turn their physical stores into thriving B2B marketplace websites. Here are some ways you can attract highly-targeted vendors on your e commerce platform:
1. Choose your business focus
It is a no less than a dream to build a B2B marketplace website and start earning out of it. In reality, the success of your online marketplace depends on the adequate number of providers offering their products and services to customers. It is the most fundamental for your business. Well, the first step to onboard vendors on your platform is to choose the focus of industry and geography and their business niche.
Your potential vendors can be newcomers in ecommerce that can be online and offline business directories, network groups, online forums, trade associations, aggregators, hobby clubs etc. You can also provide options to try the B2B ecommerce solution and get them going with the platform.
2. Onboard merchants with best-in-class offers
Owning an online marketplace means more vendors will lead to more earnings for your business. More items on your online store simply means more website visitors and more sales. Once you have decided on the business niche, start taking the advantage of existing platforms where your target audience is active. For example, online forums or Facebook groups.
Now, you have the right set of prospects. At this point, you need to persuade them to list their products on your online marketplace. It can be done by offering them best-in-class deals like reduced processing fees, additional features and benefits for a limited period, extended free trial of the B2B ecommerce solution etc.
3. Embrace the merchant’s journey
Not all the B2B sellers are digitally ready and know the process to manage the online marketplace successfully. Some hand holding can be done by providing them software training or through the service agent visits for a certain time. As you begin, you may need to train your manufacturers, distributors, retailers to become more digitally responsive, that will solidify the business relationship investments.
4. Maintain your ecosystem
An online marketplace is not a destination where you build a B2B marketplace website and leave it. It is a journey that requires continuous efforts to sustain the vendor and traffic activities. Some of the activities include new product and service launches, new deals on merchant onboarding, refreshing of product and promotion data etc. These efforts are a part of a proactive approach to meet the evolving needs of B2B buyers. A state-of-the-art ecommerce platform like StoreHippo can help you identify the opportunities through extensive customer and buyer insights to boost your business revenues.
5. Get leader advantage with personalized discounts and promotions
As you build loyalty with your vendors on the marketplace platform, they are more likely to offer you better prices in the future. And it will help you build a better ecosystem, provide better discounts and promotions, and attract more customers on the website. This will lead to a leader advantage and reinforce your dominance in the ecommerce industry.
Conclusion
Why is StoreHippo the best B2B ecommerce solution?
If you think that your wholesale business will gain enormous benefits with an online marketplace, now is the time to build a B2B marketplace website. StoreHippo offers the best-in-class B2B ecommerce solution that is fully scalable and flexible to any number of products, vendors, and users. It is a mobile-ready solution to help you capture your audience.
With the new market and customer demands, the B2B ecommerce solution has also evolved big time. It offers a specialized B2B platform with advanced technology to support your wholesale business needs.
StoreHippo ensures to provide a whole new experience to your vendors while providing endless customizable options to create new entities according to your dynamic business requirements. And the best part is that you need not to buy the platform directly, start a 14-day free trial to check amazing B2B marketplace features offered by StoreHippo and decide by yourself.
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