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B2B transactions received a major shift from onsite transactions to online-based ones due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The sector’s total sales increased by over 30% between 2019 and 2023–a figure showing that online B2B usage is on an upward trend.
Are you a serial entrepreneur, startup founder, or investor looking to benefit from this expanding market?
Then read through this article for a better understanding of how to create an online B2B marketplace.
In this article, we’ll talk about the following:
Let’s dig into the nitty-gritty of the article:
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A business-to-business marketplace is a digital eCommerce solution that connects organizations to companies they’re willing to transact with.
B2B marketplaces create a platform for companies to make bulk purchases.
You can check out the examples below for a better understanding:
As a startup founder, there are a host of perks to B2B marketplace development.
These are:
Online B2B marketplace platforms can easily accommodate additional customers, services, and products without having to hire more talents.
For example, in an instance of a demand surge, you don’t have to significantly increase your workforce.
You can increase your capacity by simply improving web performance to handle increased traffic. This makes scaling easy and cheap.
Companies that use data in decision-making processes enjoy an 8% increase in profit within a year.
A great way to access data for business decisions is via online B2B marketplace development.
One of the ways they accomplish this is via APIs, which send user data to the platform’s administrator.
Also, B2B platforms can use machine learning and data mining techniques to identify and analyze patterns in large data sets.
This generates insights to make informed user-centric decisions such as identifying new market opportunities, optimizing inventory, and predicting demand.
Business process automation generates up to 400% ROI.
You can benefit from this impressive ROI via online marketplace development.
It provides a means to integrate your platform with CRM, ERP, and logistics software to automate tasks like shipment tracking, order processing, and inventory management for better workforce efficiency.
One of the benefits of online B2B platforms is their ability to eliminate paperwork, labor-intensive tasks, and physical storage.
For example, rather than pay an accountant for basic invoicing, you can integrate accounting software into your website.
This doesn’t just save cost, but also reduces time, and errors.
One of the benefits of owning a B2B marketplace site is the potential for profit due to the growth trajectory of the industry, and the increase in consumer interest.
Here are some statistics proving the above statement:
What’s more? Investors have also expressed interest in funding B2B startups.
Here are a few examples of B2B ecommerce development that have gotten funding:
With the information above, we’re pretty sure you’re somewhat inspired to create your own B2B ecommerce platform development.
Let’s discuss the types of B2B online marketplace available for better understanding.
The three main types of online business-to-business marketplace development are:
Each of them has distinct differences that we’ll discuss in detail.
Buyer-oriented, also called eProcurement, is a type of market-driven by suppliers, where there are fewer buyers than sellers.
For easier understanding, think of it as a bidding platform like General Electric’s electronic bidding site.
Buyers will pay a small subscription fee and post their needs on the platform. Suppliers interested will bid for the project.
Buyers will vet the bids, and choose one with the most desirable terms.
This type of marketplace has more buyers than suppliers. It’s also called supplier directory or eDistribution.
This type of B2B platform works by suppliers displaying their items and corresponding prices. For better understanding consider Cisco Connection Online.
This model gives suppliers exposure and automates market reach.
Here, the owner acts as a third party that allows both sellers and buyers to transact on the platform.
The platform owner is the middleman through which the transaction takes place.
Both sellers and buyers sign up to the platform, the clients browse through the services and products of vendors.
The financial transaction also occurs through the platform owner. Consider Mangtas for better understanding.
Does any of your idea fit into one of the categories mentioned above?
To identify the most ideal model for your idea, you should first identify the role of your platform to both suppliers and buyers.
If yes, then it’s a supplier-oriented marketplace.
If yes, it’s a buyer-oriented platform.
Then it’s an intermediary-oriented marketplace.
Once you’ve identified your business model, then you can better articulate your idea, undertake more precise business research, and communicate effectively with the eCommerce development team.
Once you’ve figured the above out, you can begin development.
The steps to online B2B marketplace development are:
The research or discovery phase is a stage where the startup founder and project managers gather information, highlight requirements, and conduct analysis on general insights needed to develop the idea.
It’s a stage to vet the profitability and market readiness of the founder’s business idea.
Here, the project development team analyzes and collects information needed to create a marketplace app.
Information here proves to the team that the project is viable, feasible, and usable.
The steps here are:
Customer research is a process of investigating consumer preferences, wants, behaviors, and segments.
You can undertake this as part of your UX design research, or include it in your market research.
Research the preference of your target market. Focus on both the target sellers and buyers on the platform.
The business model of your solution determines your customer research direction.
Competitor research entails identifying top companies in your niche, their pain points, and their strengths.
When doing this, it’s best to focus on brands with cutting-edge business models as they’re likely going to pose a threat to your idea.
Competitor research can also help to identify industry trends.
The project specifications and scope define the deliverables, timeline, tasks, deadlines, and costs.
That’s a note detailing the summary of everything your need to achieve and the timeline for delivering them.
Startups need a quick time-to-market to edge out competitors.
However, the development timeframe shouldn’t be too short as that will reduce product quality.
An excellent timeframe is just enough for the software development team to work with and fits into your business development team’s schedule.
The UI/UX design phase creates a pictorial view showing how the app works, and its overall look.
Wireframes and interactive prototypes from this phase also aid in adjusting user flows, guiding the technical team, and raising funds from investors.
Due to the multiplicity of factors that determine the overall outcome here, it’s generally more fluid than others as regular changes are needed.
You can read more about this phase in this article on “how much does it cost to design and develop a website?.”
The blueprint from the research phase gives your designers an idea of the expected technical and business requirements for the solution.
Deliverables expected at the end of this step entail:
This step is where you turn the UI/UX design into a live app by writing codes in varying programming languages for back-end and front-end features development.
For timely delivery, ensure a project manager keeps track of development processes and ensures adherence to milestones.
For example, you may have a deadline to complete login features, another for UI development, and one to create backend APIs, etc.
However, Online B2B marketplace development requires ample coding time for server-side codes for in-app payment.
Ensure smooth communication between the coding team, and app testers for guaranteed product quality.
Upon completion, carry out multiple tests to detect vulnerable endpoints, and ensure the front-end is user-centric.
Let’s delve into the features your online B2B marketplace should have.
First create a minimal viable product to test the efficacy of your product.
An MVP only offers essential features to meet the core needs of your target users.
Here are some key MVP development features:
| MVP Features | Description |
| User Registration and Authentication | Buyers and sellers should register and create accounts for secure authentication. |
| Company Pages and User Profiles | Let users create profiles for the companies. They should provide i company description, contact details, company name, and logo. |
| Product Listings and Search | This feature helps sellers provide information about their products. By implementing a robust search functionality, you can provide a means for buyers to easily find and filter products based on information on listings. |
| In-App Messaging | Implement an integrated messaging system to facilitate seamless communication between sellers and buyers. This helps both parties to clarify and negotiate deals. |
| Order Management | Implement features for sellers to manage orders and create invoices. Users should also be able to track order status. |
| Payment Gateway Integration | Add secure payment gateway processors to facilitate smooth transactions between buyers and sellers. |
| Admin Dashboard | Create a robust admin panel that let platform administrators monitor transactions, make moderate listings, and handle disputes. |
In some instances, the type of online B2B marketplace determines the primary features.
As such, ensure to highlight the primary features you’ll need during the research phase.
Upon successful MVP launch, add additional features to improve user experience and cater to additional user demands.
Here are some scalable features to consider:
| Additional Features | Description |
| Advanced Search and Filtering | Enhance user search functionality by incorporating advanced filters. Include product attributes, certifications, location, ratings, and more. |
| Customized Pricing and Negotiation | Enable buyers and sellers to negotiate prices and make customized in-app quotes. Include options for bulk purchases, personalized pricing, and discounts. |
| Inventory Management | Offers inventory management capabilities for sellers. This ensure sellers can easily track stock levels, and set order points. |
| Integration with ERP/CRM Systems | Uses effective ERP and CRM systems to ensure seamless data synchronization, customer tracking, and order management between B2B users in the system. |
| Supplier and Buyer Performance Metrics | Implement a rating tracking system for suppliers per product quality, fulfillment time, and user experience. |
| Multi-Language and Localization | Integrate features for languages and localize them to cater to different regions. It improves accessibility and user experience for international buyers and sellers. |
| Analytics and Insights | Enhance analytics and reporting capabilities by providing detailed insights into the marketplace, emerging trends, and product categories. |
At the end of this phase, you should have a desired live app that’s a perfect replica of what the UI/UX designer created.
Once the product passes all quality assurance tests, and all parties are satisfied with the deliverable, the next step is the App launch phase.
The next step to mobile app launch on Google Play and Apple App Store.
However, upon launch, you should start paying attention to users’ feedback.
Features with negative feedback require improvements, updates, or an outside removal.
Your aim here is to ensure people use your solution without any hitch.
Also, include as many users as possible in your online B2B marketplace testing phase.
This is because the more your users, the better your feedback quality.
Nothing is a smooth ride in software development. There are always challenges to anticipate and surmount to create a high-quality product.
Let’s dig deep into those challenges:
Business-to-business transactions involve complex processes and workflows.
Automating these processes into online B2B marketplace development requires in-depth analysis and mapping for precise performance.
Coordinating stakeholders and accommodating their requirements within the solution can be a noteworthy challenge.
It’s essential to integrate disparate databases and systems from different organizations in a B2B marketplace.
Ensure data security, privacy, and consistency across every technology you use.
You’ll need robust encryption mechanisms, and authentication protocols that are regularly updated to safeguard sensitive business information.
You’ll need to design your B2B marketplace to handle large transactions, including in situations of traffic surge to your platform.
Ensure optimal responsiveness, scalability, and performance to prevent outages, or slowdowns at peak usage periods.
The process of onboarding and validating suppliers in a marketplace app is time-consuming.
Thus, undertake background checks, compliance assessments, and verify requisite documents for a trustworthy ecosystem for buyers and sellers.
You need payment gateways and logistics services integration to facilitate smooth transactions.
For this, you need a software development agency with an understanding of how to work with multiple external providers, and how to comply with the regulatory laws of different regions.
Upon a B2B marketplace launch, it’s important to carry out maintenances, carry out bug fixes, and undertake multiple feature enhancements to keep the platform relevant.
Accommodate evolving business requirements, user feedback, and technology advancement as it comes up.
Technology is evolving, with new trends fast overtaking older ones.
In 2023, some B2B trends are bound to determine market direction, and sharpen business.
Data is at the central point of most meaningful decisions nowadays. It aids businesses understand consumers purchasing behaviors, demographics, and preferences.
This can help to segment your target audience into separate groups for more targeted offerings and adverts.
You can also leverage data to track market trends, competitor activities, and industry dynamics.
By analyzing data from multiple sources, you can better stay ahead of the competition.
Artificial intelligence has made noteworthy inroads in the online B2B marketplace by enhancing personalization, decision-making capabilities, and efficiency.
The advent of AI-powered virtual assistants and chatbots like chatGPT etc can provide personalized and instant assistance to B2B buyers.
AI bots can guide customers through the purchasing process, and routine inquiries, and provide relevant product recommendations.
AI is currently being used to predict future AI demand, facilitate supply chain planning, and optimize inventory management.
Sustainability and social responsibility is increasingly becoming important for consumers and businesses.
First Insights public report suggests that over 70% of users prefer sustainable products and are willing to pay more for them in 2023.
B2B marketplaces in 2023 place greater emphasis on sustainable sourcing practices.
They’ll pay more attention to responsible materials sourcing, ethical labor practices, and friendly manufacturing processes.
This article explains the nitty-gritty of how to create an online B2B marketplace that is scalability and meets your business goals.
The steps to business-to-business marketplace creation mentioned here entail the research phase, UI/UX design, coding phase, and app launch.
Are you reading this article on how to create an online B2B marketplace because you’re interested in the industry?
If yes, then you highly experienced software development agency to curate scalable, resilient, and failure-proof solutions.
At Intelivita, we have experience creating different types of B2B marketplace solutions that can help you edge out competitors.
Doubt our expertise?
Then check through our portfolio, and read through our reviews on Clutch.
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