B2B Experts Community Digest: B2B marketplaces (February, 2024)
Introduction
In this digest we introduce a new B2B marketplace collection on our portal.
Over the past year, we have seen a steady increase in interest in the topic of B2B digital marketplaces from companies operating in a variety of markets. We see that many companies which are interested or using B2B marketplace model are faced with the shortage of information on this topic. To close this gap, we are launching a new collection on the B2B Experts Wiki dedicated to B2B digital marketplaces.
Here we introduce the materials that are included into the first collection release and now are available on B2B Experts Wiki for everyone.
B2B marketplaces: overview
Busting the five biggest B2B e-commerce myths (with abstract) describes the results of a study conducted by McKinsey more than two years ago and indicated that in 2022 most of large corporate clients were ready to purchase on B2B marketplaces and many of them actively invested in building their own B2B marketplaces (McKinsey, 2022).
The multiplier effect: How B2B winners grow (with abstract) points that targeted strategies for third-party and company-owned marketplaces is something what B2B outperformers do differently. The article contains quite a lot of facts, numbers, and insights, that might be useful for any B2B business (McKinsey, 2023).
The following two brilliant articles by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) consultants devoted to vertical B2B marketplaces would be very interesting, since it is especially practical and well-structured.
Vertical Take-Off. A New Direction for B2B Marketplaces (with abstract) explains vertical B2B marketplaces on a business level, including key business drivers, monetization model, organizational design aspects etc. All points are shortly and clearly explained (PWC, 2023).
Marketplace Technology. Powering Business Lift-Of (with abstract) gives a very good overview of the technology aspects such as architecture, main "vendor archetypes", a framework to define a desirable architecture infrastructure, and implementation path, contains very good illustrations and explanations. This document is created for business people, so it would facilitate the communication between business and IT (PWC, 2023).
Since marketplace technologies are affordable it might be used by many companies for building different typs of e-procurement solutions. The article E-Procurement: The Other Side Of The B2B Marketplace (with abstract) contains detailed explanation of how that would look like for different context (Forbes, 2023).
The article The ranks of B2B marketplace companies will keep on growing (with abstract) is based on 2023 B2B Marketplace 500 Report by Digital Commerce 360. According to the research more and more B2B marketplaces appear in United States. The article includes brief overview of the survey (that might be purchased from Digital Commerce 360) and some key conclusions (Digital Commerce 360, 2023).
Even though we are all very optimistic about the future of B2B marketplaces, the article B2B buyer preferences start with manufacturers' ecommerce sites (with abstract) which based on results from a new survey of 150 buyers points, that ecommerce sites are not losing the popularity vs B2B marketplaces that much. The article includes some detailed information on customers' behaviour (Digital Commerce 360, 2023)
B2B marketplaces: Real cases
Disrupting a mature industry with a digital solution: A conversation with Mlion’s Eric Leong (with abstract). The interview by McKinsey where The CEO of a leading Southeast Asian steel distributor explains why he decided to launch a B2B marketplace, a venture designed to reuse steel, reduce carbon emissions, and disrupt his core business (McKinsey, 2023).
Disrupting Thailand’s B2B food marketplace: A conversation with Makro PRO’s Tirayu Songvetkasem (with abstract). The interview by McKinsey where the chief digital officer of a Thai incumbent catering to the food services sector explains how the company’s B2B spin-off combines the best of the start-up and enterprise worlds (McKinsey, 2023).
Success factors for B2B marketplaces. Expert voices (with abstract). The article contains thoughts of 8 experts about the most important success factors for B2B marketplaces and sure-fire route to failure. Experts are founders and top managers that have their own experience of launching and managing marketplaces what makes their conclusions especially unique and valuable (Spryker, 2022).
Case study: How can we harness digital technology to disintermediate a B2B market? (with abstract). A small case study by EY devoted to building Indonesia’s first digital B2B marketplace for plastics producers and manufacturers and solving market inefficiencies. Not that much insights there, but still might be useful (EY, 2021).
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