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. Search product directory for wholesale b2b product catalogs
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.