Global B2C marketplaces have revolutionized the e-commerce industry with sites like Amazon and eBay providing one-stop shops for consumers to find and buy anything on their wish list. It’s no surprise that B2B has followed suit with marketplaces like Amazon Business and eWorldTrade establishing themselves as go-to destinations for suppliers offering bulk sales of products, parts, and raw materials to buyers around the globe.
While the idea of an open marketplace that offers visibility for your product to millions of potential customers sounds enticing for suppliers, these platforms come with many pitfalls that can leave sellers underwhelmed and without the necessary return on investment for time spent integrating into the marketplace.
Distinguish the browsers from the buyers
One of the biggest issues with open B2B marketplaces is just that – they’re open to anyone and everyone to browse products and message suppliers. On first thought, this sounds great. As a supplier, you want to be available to as many potential customers as possible, but only if they’re serious about buying. Too often much of the buyer traffic includes those who are just browsing, and ultimately not following through with purchase orders, leaving suppliers with a lot of activity but few real deals.
The Anvyl Marketplace eliminates the needle-in-a-haystack scenario by providing direct access to pre-vetted brands who are not only qualified, but ready to buy now. Brands listed on the Anvyl Marketplace fit key criteria and verticals for suppliers, are easier to work with because purchasing intent is known, and are more likely to drive large volume recurring orders rather than the smaller one-off purchases sellers receive from an open marketplace.
Shorten the sales cycle for closed won deals
Every customer negotiation is different, and quite often they can be time consuming. Open marketplaces tend to be populated by a large number of unsavvy buyers, forcing suppliers to spend an inordinate amount of time answering questions, haggling on prices, explaining process and logistics, and more. For example, a youth football coach looking to buy 50 helmets for his team may require the same amount of time and effort to service as a global brand interested in purchasing 50,000 helmets.
Wasted time can turn into missed opportunities. The Anvyl Marketplace helps narrow the gap for you. Our marketplace only accepts pre-vetted brands that have experience purchasing meaningful quantities from suppliers. The platform offers both brands and suppliers a streamlined workflow to request and collaborate on quotes. In addition, Anvyl suppliers now have the benefit of staying organized with all communication to prospects in one place, such as price quotes, orders, and invoices. This significantly cuts down on the unnecessary transfer of data between systems and team members when closing deals.
Cut out the middleman
Since open B2B marketplaces are available to everyone, it draws in brokers who are looking to profit from your transaction. For instance, a middleman broker may request a quote, and before relaying the information to a client, s/he will likely add an 8 to 15% markup. Because this will be well over the market price, the client may decline this quote without the opportunity for you to negotiate or work out better business terms.
On the flip side, for sales that do go through, suppliers will never have a direct relationship with the actual buyer, making it impossible to foster an ongoing business relationship.
Create a profile page today
For suppliers that wish to connect directly with brands, the Anvyl Marketplace facilitates access to verified brands that are looking to not only diversify their supply chain, but create better and long-term supplier relationships through the Anvyl SRM features.
By creating a profile page, suppliers access over $1 billion in new revenue opportunities to drive consistent lead flow for future business growth and streamline the RFQ workflow in the process. Don’t get lost in the open marketplace ecosystem. Go where your buyers are now. To get started, create a profile page today.
