Grow Your Business Using B2B Emarketplace - Part I
If you are a small to medium size company and selling or planning to sell products and services over the Net and still did not try out emarketplaces, you are simply loosing a great opportunity! Research firm eMarketer predicts that worldwide B2B ecommerce revenues will surpass US$ 1.4 trillion by the end of 2003. In the United States alone revenues will total US$ 721 billion. By 2004, the US B2B ecommerce revenues are expected to reach US$ 1.01 trillion and studies show that a significant portion of these transactions will be conducted through emarketplaces. What is an Emarketplace? In a broader sense, business to business emarketplace is an online platform where buyers and sellers come to communicate, collaborate and make business transactions. Emarketplace caters a large number of participant companies as a community. The main objective of an emarketplace is to create a venue, filled with features that allow members to efficiently conduct significant portion of business processes on the Net. Emarketplaces are also known as B2B exchanges. Types of Emarketplaces There are varieties of emarketplaces available on the Internet to suit your company's specific need. Public:
These emarketplaces are open to all companies. Virtually, anybody can become a member and conduct business through these marketplaces. Private:
Membership is restricted and owners of the marketplace decide according to which criteria they will select participants. For example: a large trading company can have its own emarketplace limited to its buyers or suppliers only. Horizontal:
If the emarketplace works with a large numbers of products and services from different industries, it is called a horizontal marketplace. Vertical:
Industry specific emarketplaces are called vertical markets. An emarketplace, working solely with suppliers and buyers of cars is an example of this kind of marketplace. Can your company benefit from an Emarketplace? Whether you are primarily a buyer or a supplier, participation in emarketplace can generate enormous benefits to your company - both in cost savings and productivity increase. Benefits that you can have as a buyer Automate the purchasing procedure
Emarketplaces allow you to send request for quotes to a prospective supplier, receive quotes, send purchase orders and receive invoices within the marketplace system. You can virtually consolidate all your procurement processes in one single place. This process of automation brings significant efficiency to you and saves your transaction processing cost. According to Aberdeen Group, a research company, thanks to B2B procurement systems, businesses can reduce these processing costs up to 70%. Comparison shopping at its best
Since you can see all the suppliers of a particular product, that you are planning to buy, in one place, it is easy for you to see which one among the suppliers suits you best in terms of quality, delivery time, geographical location, costs etc. Reduce sourcing time cycle
Most emarketplaces allow you to select multiple offers from different suppliers and create purchase orders in one shot and send. Since you handle all your procurement related correspondence from a consolidated working page, you can see right away answers to requests for quote, invoices, etc. This helps you react instantly and reduce you time in document processing. Community participation
You can receive valuable feedbacks from other fellow buyers, receive industry-related information, build new partnerships and use the networking ability of a community. Real time access to current product information
Current information of a product is vital for an accurate buying decision. 24 hours access to supplier's catalog helps you getting most up-to-date information any time you need it. Control rogue spending
Consolidated and automated procurement and approval method stops maverick buying in a company. Benefit that you can have as a seller New sales channel
By becoming a member of an emarketplace, 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 to you. Low customer acquisition cost
Your mere presence in the emarketplace might bring you new customers. Since the buyers come to emarketplace themselves your cost of getting customers through this channel is relatively low in comparison to other traditional channels. Improve customer service
Ability to have constant interaction through the emarketplace allows you to serve your customers better. You can track the whole ordering process from payment to delivery and bring greater efficiency in customer service. Efficient information sharing method
When needed, you can instantly update your catalog and inform your customers about changes. Whether you are launching a new product or having a web seminar, through emarketplace you can share the information more efficiently. Reduce supply chain cost
According to eMarketer, automated supply chain process through emarketplaces can reduce your overhead costs 20% to 40%. You may ask, if participation in an emarketplace is so beneficial, why companies are not flocking to emarketplaces. The slower adoption can be blamed on various inadvertent factors: - Many companies had fall short to generate significant sales from their own websites and look at emarketplaces with a dose of skepticism. But as studies show ecommerce endeavors fail, mainly, due to lack of proper planning and marketing, as many site managers take the attitude that build-it-and-they-will-come.
- Many conservative suppliers claim that their business depends on close relationship with local buyers. In reality, you can also get access to local untapped market through emarketplaces. Another aspect - you can bring efficiency to your business by co-adopting an emarketplace along with your buyers.
- Many elderly executives are not very tech-savvy and afraid of adopting new technologies considering them too complex. In reality, e-business is virtual implementation of real life business processes and not very difficult to embrace.
- Fear of price shopping by buyers is another factor, why suppliers are reluctant to use emarketplaces. The ability of emarketplace to emphasize all characteristics of the product in product content and demonstrate buyer-specific pricing should eliminate this fear.
- Many, mistakenly, consider that participation cost in emarketplace is very high and will hurt their bottom line. The expenses related to emarketplace membership are, usually, a mere fraction of what you can save from the use of its different features.
What to look in an Emarketplace? As an online venue, where participants expect to conduct substantial part of their business processes, emarketplace has a large range of useful features: - Product catalog based on an industry-standard classification system
- Product search capability within the marketplace and e-catalog
- Buyers and sellers search capabilities
- Supply chain process, i.e. request for quote, quotation, purchase order, billing system, etc.
- Directory of members
- Shipment tracking
- Simple system of adding and editing products
- Simple offer posting system
- Ability to promote products with special offers, sales, and discount
Apart from these, some emarketplaces boast other interesting features like auction and reverse auction, new product listing notification, business forum, XML interface, Internal messaging system. Naturally, implementation of these features may vary significantly emarketplace to emarketplace. Where to look for Emarketplace? The best place to find an extensive list of emarketplaces is the B2B directory site: http://www.bocat.com. The open directory project DMOZ has a good list of emarketplaces. However, not all listings in both of these places are, in reality, emarketplaces. Some of them are simple trade boards. This list is located at http://dmoz.org/Business/E-Commerce/Marketplaces/ Yahoo! directory is not organized well enough to locate emarketplaces. They are scattered under the subcategories: Vertical marketplace builders, Trade directories and even Trade. Forbes magazine has a quality list of many B2B companies including some emarketplaces. You will find the list at: http://www.forbes.com/bow/b2b/main.jhtml To be continued in next issue: Selecting the right Emarketplace. Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business. You can contact him at mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com, http://www.rusbiz.com |
Other Trading System Articles
NASDAQ 800? In November of 2000 when the NASDAQ was trading at 3000 I wrote in this column that the NASDAQ Index would fall to 1500 and I got lots of heat for saying it. Microsoft had fallen from $129 to $60 per share. You know where they are today.The talking heads on CNBC-TV and many of the radio stock experts are convinced we are headed back up as ...Forex Trading: The Fastest And Greatest Way To Create True Wealth If you search on the internet you’ll find millions of investment programs such as real estate, stock trading, bond trading, mutual funds, CDs, auction programs and various internet programs.I have not done many internet income opportunities or programs or affiliate programs because I had been lucky to discover a very easy way to make mon ...Developing the "Holy Grail" Trading System Before I get myself into trouble, let me point out that there is no "Holy Grail" trading system in the world - not yet anyway. If there is, please let me know. I don't mind paying a thousand bucks for it. However, a trading system close to the "Holy Grail" is indeed possible and I'll show you how to develop it.But before we come to that, ...A Mini-Guide To The Managed Forex Account A managed forex account is forex made easy. It is especially tailored for those investors who do not have the time or desire to monitor their own forex account. Many different companies offer these accounts to their clients. A managed forex account is often chosen by individuals who wish to take advantage of the high liquidity and high profit ...An Interesting Approach to the Stock Market In March of 1996 Owen O’Malley travelled half way around the globe from a small remote part of Donegal, Ireland to the Hilton Hotel in Kona, Hawaii to spend time with and attend a course designed and delivered by some of the most successful Investors and Traders on the face of the planet at that time.For six long days twenty four differen ...Dubai Lifestyle - The History of the City and Day to Day Life in Dubai Background Information to the United Arab Emirates and Dubai: -Dubai is one of the seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE); it is located in the Middle East. The UAE borders the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf and is situated between Oman and Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates was formed in 1971 by the then ‘Truci ...Online Stock Trading More and more people are trading stocks online each year because of various reasons, one of which is that in online stock trading, there is no need for a personal broker or a middleman. Therefore, this eliminates costs since most brokers charge high stock trading fees and commissions which are not worth it for people who are only selling or buyi ...E-currency Exchange Training Programs Reviewed Many people are asking about the e-currency trading course. When thinking of e-currency trading, people tend to think of the FOREX market. What people need to know is that we are not talking about FOREX here, rather a system that allows people to act as a middle man and process transactions from one e-currency to another. For example, moving ...The Secrets of the Super-Traders The first and perhaps most important “secret” is to realize that your methodology or approach (no matter how good) is only part of being a highly successful trader. This applies to any trading style including, day trading, swing trading or position trading.The simple fact is that a bad trader can screw up a fantastic trading system. Conv ...Currency Trading Seminars – The Best Way To Learn and They Can Be FREE The best way to learn to trade currencies is to attend a currency trading seminar, as you will gain a far greater insight into trading than by simply reading books.Many currency trading seminars not only allow you to learn theory, but also to apply what you have learned in practice in real trading situations, so you can test what you have ...The Tools of the Trader As the moderator of Daytraders, the net’s top real-time, live, chat room dedicated to stock trading, I receive many requests and questions on a daily basis. One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is, “What are the tools I need to day trade?”Many subscribers want to know what broker to use, what kind of computer, how many mon ...Get Rich with Arbitrage Trading Is it true that you can make money using Arbitrage Trading? Yes it is true because I am living proof. I use this amazing arbitrage trading software surebetpro that allows me to find arbs faster, and easier increasing the speed at which I can make money.Hi my name is Chris Rohrer I am only 21 years old and I make over $1,000 ...Choosing A Forex Trading System - Part 1 There are many different kind kinds of Forex trading systems.Of course, the most important Forex trading system is the one that is right for you.As you search the web for Forex trading systems suitable to you there will be many seemingly appealing offers many promising to be so much better than the rest.It can be difficult t ...Why Are Coalbed Methane Stocks Red Hot? Eric Nuttall:Coal bed methane (CBM) is perhaps one of the last significant natural gas resources available in Canada. With the maturing of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, the potential for elephant sized discoveries has been greatly reduced. Higher natural gas prices have also greatly improved the economics for CBM exploitation. W ...Using Arbitrage Trading to Make Money From Home In today’s world anymore you need to work two jobs. You need a part time job, and a full time job. The problem with this though is that it doesn’t allow you to have much time to do the things we should really be doing in life. Spending time with our kids, taking family vacations, buying a new home or car, and so much more. If you are anything li ...FOREX Software: A Critical Element for Success In most cases when you sign up with a FOREX broker they will provide you with software to execute transactions as well as get market information. Since online trading has been around for quite some time now, the brokers have a pretty solid understanding of what the traders need from trading software. There are two primary classifications of so ...The Right Mindset Adopt It and Make Huge Profits Now! One trader who had the right mindset was W D Gann and he built a $50 million dollar fortune.What actually do we mean by the right mindset? Well let’s consider a startling fact first:Fact: 90% of traders lose because they cannot control their emotions. Getting the right mindset is essential and will help you make big profits ...Commodity Trading Systems – This Ones Free and Makes Big Gains! Today many traders buy commodity trading systems and spent money on expensive software when really all they need is to do a bit of research on the net and build their own.Here we will show you how to build your own commodity trading system that will help you pile up big gains, even if you have never traded before.First things first ...Become Rich From Working Online I am sure most of you have searched the Internet and seen people who have made their million-dollar empire from working online. Everyone tries to become this person by buying up e-books or promoting someone else’s product. I have tried them all. I was and affiliate, I bought tons and tons of e-books on how to create wealth working from home. ...The Top Ten Management Failures Over the past month I have been reflecting on the topic of organisational management. I am surprised by the number of organisations that survive perhaps through the benefit of their size or monopolistic position even though they exhibit some of the very worst management traits I've experienced.Some corporations like Enron, HIH and WorldCo ...
|
