Business-to-business eCommerce is buying and selling products and services between companies. It’s not quite like traditional eCommerce, which involves consumers purchasing products or services directly from a company. In B2B, businesses interact with other businesses to make purchases, and those interactions are conducted using digital technology.
What Is Business-to-Business (B2B)?
B2B eCommerce is the exchange of goods and services between businesses. It includes everything from buying a new office printer to selling your company’s software to another company, which will then use it to run their operations.
So, if you think this sounds like the same thing as business-to-consumer (B2C) eCommerce—which you’ll find at Amazon and other online retail sites—you’re right! But there are some key differences:
- In B2C, consumers are buying products directly from other consumers. For example, someone shopping on Etsy might be purchasing handmade items from another Etsy shop owner. In B2B eCommerce, however, individuals aren’t involved in making purchases; rather, they buy goods or services for their own companies.
- Consumers make purchases based on personal needs; businesses do not.
How Does B2B eCommerce Work?
B2B eCommerce is the buying and selling of products and services online. It is a subset of eCommerce and growing at an unprecedented rate.
B2B eCommerce provides value to both buyers and sellers:
- Buyers benefit from a more extensive selection, lower prices, more convenience, and higher quality than traditional business transactions. They also benefit from greater visibility into product availability before placing their orders.
- Sellers gain access to customers that they may not have been able to reach before (e.g., smaller companies), which expands their market share in addition to providing new opportunities for growth through increased revenue streams
The Benefits of B2B eCommerce
The benefits of B2B eCommerce are numerous, but the most important ones are:
- Building a brand
- Generating more revenue
In addition to these two core benefits, you can expect that your business’s value proposition will transform from being “a generic store” to one that offers highly differentiated products or services. This is why B2B eCommerce is so powerful. Targeting niche markets with customized offerings allows for better branding and higher profits.
Opportunities for Growth in the B2B eCommerce Space
B2B eCommerce is a growing trend and one of the significant opportunities for growth in the B2B eCommerce space.
In short, B2B eCommerce means businesses selling products to other businesses. It’s also known as “Business-to-Business eCommerce” or “B2BE” for short. And it’s enormous—the global market for B2BE was worth $4.3 trillion in 2018 alone, according to Statista, and it’s expected to grow from $4.3 trillion in 2018 to $8.1 trillion in 2022.
How does automation improve B2B eCommerce?
Automation is the key to successful B2B eCommerce. Automation can help you scale your business and save time and money, reducing the risk of human error.
In an ideal scenario, your team can focus on other areas of their job because everything else has been automated—from order processing to fulfillment to payment processing and customer service. It’s like having a piecemeal robot working alongside your business.
What is Medical B2B eCommerce?
Medical B2B eCommerce is the process of selling medical products and services to other companies. Medical e-commerce is a growing market, with many opportunities for companies to expand into new markets. The growth in this industry has been spurred on by the popularity of online shopping. Not only are consumers looking at purchasing goods online, but they also want to do so from home or their offices using their desktop computers or mobile devices.
This has led to an increase in demand for health information among both patients and doctors, who want to stay up-to-date with their treatments for various conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and more severe illnesses such as cancer which require regular checkups every six months or so depending on how severe it may seem after diagnosis through blood work results (CBC).
B2B eCommerce Can Transform Your Company’s Business Model.
You’re probably wondering, “How do I transform my business model?”
The first step is to consider whether your company can support this model. If you have a physical space and a brick-and-mortar presence, you might want to rethink that idea and stick with the traditional model. If not, there are some other things to consider as well.
One thing that needs to be communicated clearly is that buying through B2B eCommerce sites requires a certain level of trust between buyer and seller. It has been found that many customers do not follow up on their purchases unless they feel like they have met someone who cares about them personally before making a purchase decision (Fenwick & Fenwick Research Group).
Another thing worth considering is how much work goes into setting up an eCommerce site from scratch versus using an existing solution like OroCommerce or Magento (two popular platforms for B2B eCommerce). Can your company afford the time-consuming process of building up your own site? Or would you instead just get started right away by using prebuilt software? As always, it depends on what your priorities are when doing business online.
Final thought
There you have it. B2B eCommerce is a complex process, but it can be gratifying in the long run. You’ll want to consider the factors listed above and ensure that your business has a complete understanding of how each one affects its overall strategy before deciding which platform to use. With this information, we hope you’ll be able to make an informed decision about whether or not B2B eCommerce is suitable for your company.
