Top Benefits and Limitations of a Multi-Vendor B2B Marketplace
Electronic sales accounted for 51.4% of all U.S. manufacturing and distributor/wholesaler sales in 2019.
— 2020 U.S. B2B Ecommerce Market Report
Multi-vendor B2B marketplaces are quickly taking over the world as an efficient, convenient and fast digital ecommerce tool. They provide multiple opportunities for sellers and procurers, as well as for companies managing them; more and more of such marketplaces are opening every year, covering numerous industries, regions and horizontals.
This article covers certain advantages and restrictions that are native to multi-vendor B2B marketplaces and must be considered when deciding to either employ or start one. But first, let us recap: a multi-vendor B2B marketplace is a digital B2B ecommerce platform where multiple sellers offer their goods and/or services to multiple buyers. The 'multiple' part is important. Every deal is between a specific seller and a particular buyer, the marketplace acts as a matching platform (with possible additional services such as warehousing and logistics). This differs from single-vendor marketplaces and ecommerce sites, where the platform operator acts as a seller and accepts all corresponding responsibilities.
Experts at Virto Commerce – a headless B2B ecommerce platform, have collected major benefits and shortcomings of the multi-vendor B2B marketplaces.
What Are the Benefits of a B2B Marketplace?
Cost-effective entry into B2B ecommerce
Greater visibility
Presence in new markets
Transaction security
Bridge to direct buying
Transaction security
Benefits for the buyers
Streamlined procurement from multiple providers
Finding the best price
Procurement control
Marketplace as a knowledge base
Why Choose Virto Commerce for your B2B marketplace?
What Are the Pitfalls of a B2B Marketplace?
Fees or commissions
Pricing is more visible
Products are easy to compare with competitive offers
Transactions may be visible to marketplace employees
The need to manage multiple catalogs
Minimal omnichannel support
Findability
24/7 Customer management
Conclusion
These tasks are business-related and should not be hindered by technical limitations. To make sure the marketplace operator is working on the marketplace unique features and new opportunities for its customers, and not on solving technical issues, a trusted B2B software platform tailored for multi-vendor B2B marketplace tasks should be employed. One such platform is Virto Commerce; make sure to check out the all benefits (spoiler: it is .net ecommerce) and reserve a demo.
We will cover the features that distinguish a B2B marketplace from a B2C one in a future article. Stay tuned!