Business and finance horizons have been changed with the entry of ecommerce around the world. We can attribute this change to the rapidly evolving digital technology. Competition has heated up as well and the consumer demands are more sophisticated than ever before. These changes are what led to the birth of the B2B economy.
By Rakesh Jain
What is a B2B Marketplace?
A platform that trades between two individual businesses is termed as a B2B marketplace. This isn’t the regular Business to consumer ecommerce model, it differs significantly from that. It is responsible for providing supportive frameworks that help different business compete better and thus succeed. Its growth has been phenomenal in the recent years and experts predict that it will eclipse the regular B2C economy. In fact it is projected that by the year 2020 it will more than double the sales revenue as compared to the B2C sector. This would translate into approximately $7 Trillion in annual global revenue from B2B commerce.
Online resources are the fuel for the continual growth of this sector. Different business owners can now communicate directly and have information sharing without any latency. Almost all the logistical complexities are eliminated and multiple buying choices are presented before the buyer in this commerce sector. With the internet involved, the geographical boundaries are now eliminated and traders from all over the world are linked in a blink. Thus new partnerships are formed with much ease and the businesses produce phenomenal sales figures. Below are some of the numerous B2B startups that tasted success
Wydr
This B2B app/platform was launched by one of the founders of ShopClues who also worked as a marketing expert. Wydr is exclusively app based platform for wholesale shopping that links together retailers, suppliers, distributors and manufacturers. Wholesalers from all over the country can now directly sell their wares to shop owners all over India.
Services such as customer care, logistics, billing, marketing, and payment are available to both the buyers as well as the sellers on the app marketplace. Stock storage unit can also be purchased by the retailers based on the category of product being searched. There also BizChat, an instant messaging facility provided so that the buyer and sellers can negotiate their trade terms directly.
Industrybuying.com
This B2B startup was founded in 2013 by the brother sister duo of Rahul Gupta and Swati Gupta. This platform is an online marketplace for industrial supplies as its domain name implies. In 2016 the firm launched its franchise partnership program to forge better business relations with retailers of industrial supplies in Tier II and Tier III countries. It aims to partner with local resellers who have knowledge as well as the presence in the area to best serve their consumers. Their app is on Android platform and their product catalogue has over 400,000 products that are delivered to over 21,000 pin codes all over the country via their free ‘direct door’ service. Industrybuying.com has more than 5,000 registered sellers and 75,000 registered businesses as of 2016. In its most recent round of funding the startup raised $1.8million in debt from venture capitalist, Trifecta Capital.
Wisepad
Another promising B2B startup, Wisepad is from Mswipe. It is a mobile POS solution. Retailers can use this platform to accept payments from their customers. The merchant app solution enables the retailers to keep a record of all their previous transactions using the Wisepad POS solution. The invoices are saved online thus eliminating the need for physical records. Various services are there to be accessed by the users that include technical issues or transaction related or about service activation. Among the prime users of the app are Myntra, McDonalds, ICICI Securities, Asian Paints and Apollo Munich. It has entered into partnership with banks like Axis Bank.
Their aim is to boost their customer base to 10 lakhs by the year 2020. It raised $25 million in its recent Series C funding
greytHR Employee Portal
Greytip Software’s greytHR Employee Portal has streamlined the record maintenance of employee payrolls and leaves. Via this platform employees can both apply or cancel their leaves and even check their monthly attendance record which includes total holidays taken, no. of late in days, no. of early out days, absent days, etc. Employees even have access to their income tax details, provident fund and payslips. The app is available on both android and iOS. Greytip Software was founded by Gireesh Rowjee in Bengaluru and in its last funding round it raised $5milion from Blume Ventures and New Enterprise Associates
B2B economy has exploded, the testimonial to the fact being the phenomenal success of the startups like these. One of the most sought after B2B multivendor marketplace platform is Magento whose user base includes B2B giants like 3M, Honeywell, Nobel Biocare and Everlast. The numerous features of the Magento multivendor marketplace that help buyers and sellers establish and consolidate new business partnerships is why it is the platform of choice for B2B aspirants.
Rakesh Jain is a CEO and Co-founder of Mobicommerce, an eCommerce website & mobile app development company having a team of best app developers who deliver best eCommerce solutions mainly on Magento and PrestaShop platform. He regularly contributes his knowledge on the leading blogging sites. You can connect with him on Twitter.
B2B stock photo by frank_peters/Shutterstock
