Why Suppliers should use B2B exchanges
by Nowshade Kabir
Published on this site: June 15th, 2004
Business to business e-commerce is on the rise! Worldwide B2B
e-commerce revenues are estimated to reach around US$ 2 trillion
in 2004. This is a significant leap from last year's US$ 1.4 trillion.
However, according to a recent survey, although, more than 70% of
companies have already used Internet as a purchasing channel, a
mere ten percent of their overall spending is directed via the Internet!
Contrary to popular believe, this means, B2B e-commerce has still
large potential to grow.
Internet has the capacity of changing the conventional way of doing
business. Today, you can not only buy and sell your products and
services on the Internet, you can, virtually, shift all your business
processes to online solutions as well. If you take advantages of
new Internet based technologies, the outcome would be tremendously
beneficial to your business. How to do this without spending a fortune
and not putting a huge pressure on scarce corporate resources? The
possible answer could be B2B exchanges!
A B2B exchange is an online marketplace, where buyers, sellers
and intermediaries form communities, exchange views, offer products
and services, and conduct business transactions.
By becoming a member of a B2B exchange you can benefit in both
cost-saving and revenue increase – two primary requirements
of productivity increase.
New sales channel
By becoming a member of a B2B exchange, you open a low cost, highly
functional and easy-to-use sales channel for your company.
You expose your company to a new targeted audience that otherwise
would have been untapped. Prospective customers can buy products
and services from you, using various venues and features of the
B2B exchange, where you are a member.
Marketplace: All B2B exchanges include a marketplace, where
suppliers can post sales offer of their products and services. Buyers,
looking for specific products, can easily find best suppliers that
suit them from the marketplace. A populated marketplace can easily
become a good sales channel for a supplier.
Electronic catalog: As a member of the B2B exchange, you
are allowed to add all your products or services to the consolidated
online repository of the exchange. Adding your products to the repository
helps to create online standardize electronic version of your product
specification – if you don't have that before – and use
the same catalog with other electronic sales systems – even
with other B2B exchanges using XML interface.
You can publish sales offer of your entire catalog to the marketplace,
eliminating a need for other web presence. You can add products
or services to the repository one by one or you can use XML interface
to upload your whole electronic catalog.
Web Store: Some B2B exchanges allow you to convert or integrate
your website to their exchange. This helps you to handle sales conveniently
from your website and the marketplace of the exchange seamlessly.
You can make a web store from scratch with the help of integrated
website builder of the B2B exchange as well.
Auctions: One of the great features of many B2B exchange
is their auction systems. As we all know from the immense success
of Ebay, auctioning is a great way of selling products online. Some
exchanges boast reverse auction system, where suppliers bid for
a deal posted by a buyer.
As a supplier, you can participate in those tenders without any
extra cost involved.
Low customer acquisition cost
Your mere presence in the B2B exchange might bring you new customers!
Since the buyers come to the exchange themselves; your cost of getting
customers through this channel is relatively low in comparison to
other traditional channels.
You can even increase your visibility by advertising in the key
places of the exchange, where your prospective buyers frequently
visit. Being highly targeted, these ads produce incredible results.
Improve customer service
Ability to have constant interaction through the B2B exchange allows
you to serve your customers better. You can track the whole ordering
process from payment to delivery and bring greater efficiency in
customer service. The integrated functions of an exchange such as
sales management, internal messaging service, lead management, etc.
also help you managing customers service process effectively.
Efficient information sharing method
When needed, you can instantly update your catalog and inform customers
about changes. Whether you are launching a new product or having
a web seminar, through the B2B exchange you can share the information
more efficiently.
Some B2B Exchanges use sophisticated knowledge management systems
to create, capture, reprocess and reutilize information intended
for specific group of audience.
These contents or information can be displayed on demand or in
time to a member – when needed.
Business processes management
One of the primary objectives of using B2B exchanges for you should
be their ability to handle, run and administer various business
processes. These solutions assist you to streamline your business,
reduce overhead costs and reduce documentary errors.
Using technologies in a bid to streamline business processes like
supply chain is nothing new. Companies have been using various solutions
to support product development, customer service, procurement and
other integral processes for many years. Before the Internet era,
many companies have invested enormous amount of money in infrastructure
building to automate supply chain process. Today, thanks to the
Internet, even small companies have opportunity to use highly sophisticated
supply chain solutions for a small cost. Many B2B exchanges, such
as Rusbiz.com, allow small companies to use supply chain management
solution for a small fee. The major benefits of using supply chain
solutions include:
- Reduced sales time
- Better inventory control
- Lower overhead
- Reduced manufacturing cycle time
- Reduced cost of goods
Business to business e-commerce is evolving very fast. The fact
is, at one point, most of all business transactions will take place
via the Internet. B2B exchanges are a way of building cost-effective
e-business environment on the Internet, which is capable of producing
concrete and quantifiable business benefits to the participants.
Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present
CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide
experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing.
Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and
run online business. You can contact him at mailto:nowshade <at>
rusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com/newsletters/newsletter32.htm.
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