A little bit about B2B marketplaces...
A B2B marketplace is a platform which offers an easy route for buyers and suppliers to connect and trade. Buyers join the platform to look for goods for their business, and most of the time these marketplaces are free to use as a buyer. Suppliers pay a fee to appear on these marketplaces, where they can display their products.
If you'd like to know what a B2B Marketplace is in more detail, check out our blog which explains what a B2B marketplace is and how they can differ from each other.
The traditional supply chain faced major setbacks when COVID-19 put the world on hold. From the forced closure of many sectors, to limitations on both domestic and international travel, the business sector was hugely affected and companies had to figure out how to work around this.
Quantifiable Stats
Keeping a track of your company's website traffic and statistics is crucial in order to monitor what's working and what isn't. Being able to manage this helps you to analyse what areas of your site and business you need to work on, in order to reach more or better quality leads.
One of the biggest pulls to this is that these stats are always up-to-date, can be accessed whenever, or wherever. All that's needed is a device with an internet connection!
International Reach
Geographical coverage is another big advantage that B2B marketplaces have over using traditional methods to build business relationships. For businesses seeking to expand into new, international markets, this type of platform provides an easy route to do so, with translation options and tools to assess the demand in your target markets also available.
Finding new business through B2B marketplaces can broaden a business' international exposure and reach, gaining more leads and business opportunities.
When a market is wider, the prices are more competitive and the quality of products are also higher.
Direct Enquiries
A good marketplace provides the buyer with many routes to contact the supplier. This can come in the form of either a direct message, quote, phone call or, website click.
Direct enquiries streamline the procurement process and help buyers to save valuable time by filling out a simple request which is sent directly to the marketplace. This process also saves time for the supplier, where they receive all available requests for quotations on their easily accessible, interactive dashboard.
Dedicated Account Management
The vast majority of B2B marketplaces have dedicated accounts teams put in place to provide a tailored service to the client. Regular communication between the client and service provider helps to ensure that both parties are happy, and any problems that do occur are ironed out and resolved quickly.
Account managers delve into the client's website statistics and evaluate where they're appearing in search engines. These results can be broken down to see which countries the supplier is experiencing the higher numbers in among other filters, and this information can then be utilised for marketing purposes.
Using this information they'll look to optimize your profile, helping the supplier to broaden their visibility to potential buyers.
Improves Your SEO
B2B marketplaces put a focus on increasing a business' SEO. Due to the sheer volume of visitors to B2B marketplaces, they create an increase in traffic levels, pushing your business higher up keyword rankings and gaining more exposure which translates into leads.
Keywords are so important when it comes to search engine optimisation, picking up quality and relevant content. This ensures that your business is found by the right audience.
Flexible Payment Options
Flexibility is key for many businesses. B2B marketplaces tend to offer a range of payment options. The most common option is to break up the cost over a set period of time, most of the time this is 12 months.
This makes the package much more manageable and affordable to businesses that are just starting out and don't necessarily have the facilities to pay the whole cost upfront.
If you're interested in learning more about utilising a marketplace for your business, we can provide a demonstration of our Applegate and Europages platforms, as well as a free SEO audit. Book a demo with a member of our team here.
