What is an online B2B Marketplace?
An online B2B marketplace is a business to business marketplace website that brings together vendors, sellers, distributors, resellers, affiliates etc. on a common platform and enables them to sell goods and services digitally to other businesses. An online B2B marketplace offers its sellers complete IT solutions along with paid marketing for product placements, logistics support, customer support etc. for streamlined operations and business growth.
The vendors on the B2B online marketplace bring their own inventory. The B2B marketplace deals are done with greater trust thanks to the adherence to various trust components like the B2B marketplace brand’s communications with customers as well as sellers, data security for clients as well as vendors, transparent knowledge about products sold on the online B2b marketplace, support and grievance resolutions in case of any issues with the products or services sold through the platform.
What is an online B2B Marketplace function?
An online B2B marketplace works just like a regular marketplace website along with B2B specific flows and features. The buyers are not individual customers rather different businesses, so the final purchase goes through a series of negotiations. Special features and flows are added to the purchase journey to automate and streamline different types of negotiations, getting quotes from sellers etc.
This is how a B2B ecommerce marketplace platform model functions:
The business to business brand creates B2B marketplace website and apps
Sellers, distributors, dealers for various products are registered and onboarded on the online B2B marketplace
Different levels of sellers their distributors etc. are assigned different user roles and given a separate dashboard to manage their inventory, orders shipping etc.
Clients search for products on the B2B marketplace and raise a request for quote (RFQ) through the marketplace app or website
RFQ is sent to different vendors selling the products and they submit their quotes, minimum order quantity and any other specifications needed for ordering to the client
The clients/ buyers compare the quotes and negotiate the quotes further if needed
After final price is decided buyers place the order by choosing their preferred payment method on the online B2B marketplace
The seller receives order notification and prepares the order for dispatch using the shipping services offered by marketplace brand or their own fleet of delivery boys
Order is delivered in bulk to the client's address
By automating every step in the ordering process an online B2B marketplace sets up your enterprise brand for growth and success. With a well-rounded B2B marketplace platform like StoreHippo, you can create B2B marketplace website and go to market in record time. You also get inbuilt features that automate your B2B processes and introduce multi-level efficiencies in your organization.
What are the top reasons for building an Online B2B marketplace?
Building a B2B marketplace website helps enterprise wholesale brands digitise their sales channels and unlock new growth opportunities. Here are the top reasons why enterprise brands should build their wholesale B2B marketplace :
Freedom to explore new markets in diverse geolocations
Onboard new sellers and distributors easily to sell to diverse buyer groups
Automate and centralize product and sales management to reduce manual efforts and get a better business overview
Gain better brand visibility by selling on multiple digital channels
Get better visibility of dealer/seller networks to manage them effectively and efficiently across different channels
Quicker order cycles and faster fulfilment with automation and digitization
Cost-efficient business move saves costs on many overheads like CapEx, staffing etc.
Sell more by creating personalised buying journeys across various digital channels and devices
Thanks to the modern B2B marketplace builders, it has become very easy for brands to go digital and roll out their own marketplace website. StoreHippo B2B ecommerce marketplace platform comes with 360-degree solutions to build a variety wholesale B2B marketplaces. With plug and play solutions and a host of B2B specific features, StoreHippo makes it easy for enterprise brands to modernize their business and grow strategically.
What are the top features that make your online B2B marketplace future-ready?
A B2B marketplace website needs not only the basic features but also a whole set of advanced features to stay ahead of the changing market trends. Along with the basic B2B features to run the marketplace a B2B ecommerce marketplace platform should also have features that make the business future-proof.
Here is the list of top features needed to design a successful online B2B marketplace:
Customizable theme design to build personalized landing pages for different buyer segments
Future-ready technology that gives the online B2B marketplace brand flexibility and agility to adapt to stay ahead of changing market conditions
Inherent elastic scalability to accommodate rapid scaling to any number of users, vendors, products or geographies
Extensive and comprehensive vendor management solutions for registering, onboarding and managing vendors, their distributors, resellers etc.
Ease of customizations to tweak the B2B marketplace website at the backend as well as the frontend for unique brand requirements
Feature to assign different levels of user access and user roles along with separate dashboards for admin(s), vendors and their delivery agents
Inbuilt B2B features like RFQ, multi pricing, restricted login, customizable forms, tiered pricing, credit management, MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity), tax engine etc.
Support for variety of apps for the like B2B marketplace app for the customers, admin app for the sellers and the admin, delivery boy apps etc. to run the business on the go and sell more via mobile channels
PWA stores to reach sellers and buyers even in areas with slow or poor internet connectivity
Quick and seamless integrations with the chosen third party software and service providers for marketing, logistics, ERP, CRM, POS etc.
Support for different payment methods to accept and remit payments
A secure B2B ecommerce marketplace platform with multi-level security features
Automated and integrated logistics solutions to streamline bulk order fulfilment
StoreHippo online B2B marketplace solutions come with 300+ built-in features and 150+ integrations to create innovative B2B marketplace use cases. Powered by MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) architecture StoreHippo makes it possible for B2B brands to build solutions that help them achieve disruptive results.
Why choose StoreHippo online B2B Marketplace builder?
StoreHippo has the experience and expertise in building a variety of B2B marketplace websites for B2B brands. Building tailor-made solutions for unique requirements of wholesale businesses is easy with StoreHippo as its decoupled headless architecture gives better creative control to developers, marketers and other concerned parties. Also, StoreHippo makes it easy for a B2B brand to sell omnichannel by quickly adding new customer touchpoints.
StoreHippo comes with a gamut of B2B-specific features which makes the overall business processes and operations automated, hassle-free and efficient. StoreHippo also offers support for various business models like D2C, hyperlocal marketplace, multi store set up, multilingual stores, B2B2C and more. Thanks to these inbuilt features, enterprise brands can experiment and leverage hybrid business models and build the most innovative online B2B marketplace.
When enterprise brands create B2B marketplace websites with StoreHippo they also get inbuilt go global features like multi currency support, a powerful tax engine to implement different taxation based on different geographies, ease of building multilingual B2B marketplace websites etc. to implement localization for international business.
StoreHippo's advanced features like inbuilt order and product management, advanced search, seamless navigation, buyer-seller admin chat etc. help in making the sales cycles quicker. Also, all involved parties are informed at each step with unified notifications i.e, email, SMS etc.
StoreHippo’s PCI DSS complaint B2B ecommerce marketplace platform offers Free SSL, inbuilt audit logs and other multi-level security features to keep your wholesale B2b marketplace secure. Power-packed with inbuilt marketing tools, discount engine, blog engine and customizable designs Storehippo helps in growing the brand with strategic and personalized marketing.
Ready to take your B2B brand a few notches higher? Transform your online B2B marketplace with cutting edge solutions from StoreHippo. Explore our next-gen B2B marketplace website builder by starting your 14-day free trial now.
