Today, manufacturers and suppliers have been searching platforms to start healthy marketing and sales activities.
When you think about B2B it is much more complicated on the contrary of B2C-C2C or anything including “C”. I mean consumers.
There are two types of goods: Industrial goods and consumer goods.
Industrial goods can be thought like general definition of capital goods, manufacturer goods, producer goods.
Manufacturers and suppliers can produce goods to for factories to be produced consumer goods or they can directly produce consumer goods.
This sales process can take weeks or months maybe years. Years are mostly for small or larger projects.
So, add to cart and buy now is not for B2B companies.
When you check B2B marketplaces, you should pay attention that is it for consumer goods B2B or industrial goods B2B? Or, covering all kind of goods as B2B like Alibaba?
Today, B2B marketplaces also started to focus some niches because all of B2B marketplaces working with different kind of B2B categories and B2B customers. Also different kind of purchasing or procurement durations.
Let’s check an industrial B2B marketplace: Bidustry! It is B2B marketplace for industrial sellers and buyers.
Now, Bidustry offers three value propositions for each side. For sellers:
Brand awareness, online channels with a company’s whole products, qualified leads and prospects.
For buyers,
Channels to verified manufacturers and suppliers, to receive quotations and send messages to sellers, to create a quotation form and to reach tens of sellers for a product or for a product list.
This article’s main focus is seller side. I mean manufacturers and suppliers! Industrial sellers have problems about online marketing and sales:
1- Variable prices: Their product prices depend on logistic costs, stock costs, manufacturing order quantities, minimum order quantities and so on… Also their product prices are much more higher on the contrary of consumer goods.
2- Wider product portfolio: Industrial sellers have so many products. Some of them have 400.000. Some of 1000. It means buyers order but there is a delivery date because it should be manufactured first.
3- Company websites: Inbound marketing is buzzword today, but companies have no attention on this matter. They have no blog strategies or even they have resources to be used as contents, they have no attention on this matter. They have thousands of products. These products include specifications, installations, safety forms, comissioning, etc. All can be thought as resources.
4- B2C-C2C marketplace: Mostly those marketplaces including “C” are for consumers. Their categories are like a woman, a man, a child, etc. Consumer goods categories so that these marketplaces target customers are out of the topic for those industrial manufacturers and suppliers.
What Bidustry offers as an industrial B2B marketplace:
1- Limitless upload: Industrial goods manufacturers and suppliers as sellers can upload all their catalog products without their prices. Buyers can request a quote or send a message to them. Also, they can upload all resources like specifications, data sheets, installation or commissioning videos, etc.
2- Organized sellers: Sellers can invite their re-sellers for those products. For example one of electrical brand Schneider Electric uploaded more than 50.000 products. All can’t be available in stocks. After that they invited 15 of their suppliers. Those can be organized by districts or countries. So now on Shneider products, there is a collective move in all these products with a manufacturer and suppliers.
3- Quote form: Buyers can reach in a single product more suppliers. Yes but a buyer can also create a quotation form with any other industrial products. It can be in the electrical category or in any other category. It means that buyers can reach more suppliers with a form and much more with a single product in their quotation form.
4- Industrial space: Bidustry’s categories are available for industrial manufacturers and suppliers working B2B. There are no categories such as a woman, a man, a child and so on… There are industrial categories like mechanical, electrical, civil, hardware, machine, raw material, chemical and so on... Unlike consumers, Bidustry’s target customers are factories, facilities, refineries, plants, malls, etc.
As a result of all:
- Your company website needs inbound strategies,
- A B2B marketplace can increase online channels to your company,
- As a manufacturer or a supplier, joining the right marketplace is very important.
In the next 5 years, we will see that these marketplaces become more focused on buyers side. Now, buyers don’t want to contact with sales professionals as the nature of inbound marketing.
Buyer enablement is now being discussed at companies.
Buyers want to move themselves in their procurement process.
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