Best Source for B2B Industry Trends, News and Updates
The shift of wholesale buyers from traditional methods to using online E-Commerce sites is not new. Technology development has entirely changed the way businesses buy and sell their products. Today many companies use wholesale trading websites as a way of pricing and quality benchmarking tools. In the near future, B2B websites are not only expected to grow in size and numbers but may also change the entire procurement procedure. For that reason, it is crucial for businesses operating in the B2B industry to understand the online sourcing and supplying trend and adapt themselves accordingly.
Sellers should consider the following factors when choosing B2B marketplaces to list their products:
Product and Order Management
The marketplace should offer a wide range of management options such as the ability to manage product catalogs, set prices, track inventory levels, track shipments, and a lot more.
Long Term Sustainability
Most marketplaces have a huge audience size, but the commission rates they charge per sale make it impossible for SMEs to sustain in the long term. Such sites can be great for start, but try to rely more on sites that have low or no commission rates on per-unit sales.
Competition
Almost every marketplace has some sort of competition that you need to look for. But, try to focus on sites that have minimum competition within the niche you are operating in. Even if you are running a paid campaign, having fewer competitors can result in lower prices on every click.
Following are the top wholesale B2B E-Commerce websites that every business should know about:
Most businesses rely on Tradewheel.com to meet their wholesale trading needs and it almost never disappoints. It has been operating in this industry for quite a few years and has earned a strong reputation by featuring trusted suppliers and buyers from all across the globe.
The factor that makes Tradewheel.com stand out is the way it makes product posting easy for suppliers. In contrast to most B2B E-Commerce sites, it only takes a few minutes to post products on Tradewheel.com and get genuine leads from purchase managers. For that reason, this marketplace is like a first choice for many sellers to join and earn good leads and sales.
If you go by numbers, Amazon is the largest B2B E-Commerce marketplace that you can find online. Many well-known brands also use it to sell their products at great discounts. It gives an opportunity to buyers to source goods at great discounts.
From a supplier’s perspective, having top brands in a marketplace makes it more challenging for new sellers to join and rank well for good queries. Therefore, most businesses heavily rely on paid campaigns. If you are not experienced in this segment, it is strongly recommended to hire a professional virtual assistant to help you out.
DHgate provides a great platform for international importers to buy the best quality products at the market’s best prices. What makes DHgate unique is the variety of niche and unique products you can find here. You can search for any type of product you are looking for and you will always get an unmatchable variety and quantity of goods.
Even though it deals in a wide array of products, its top-selling categories are baby products, toys, chemicals, cosmetics, and electronics. Most of their sellers have quite different prices, MOQs, and other trading terms. They also have a safe payment method to keep both buyers and sellers safe.
HTKDC features more than 120,000 suppliers that operate in different product categories. Their list includes all small to large-sized businesses. This diversity makes it a great marketplace for most buyers. Even if you are low on budget, placing a small quantity order, or vice versa, HTKDC can help with all of them.
Their user-friendly interface also allows buyers to compare multiple products at once. This way, they can save time and make well-aware decisions. Especially if you are a buyer, you can always expect to get market-competitive prices from their sellers. Many sellers also offer discounts to stand out in today’s saturated market and most importers surely make full use of it.
Global Sources is known for featuring well-known suppliers who operate in different product industries. The major chunk of the suppliers on Global Sources comes from China region. Due to the great audience size they have, sellers also pay significant fees to promote their products on their websites. Even having the right strategies can also
This marketplace was founded back in the year 2000 in Singapore. Their primary objective was to provide a platform where B2B buyers and suppliers can get in contact with each other and they have been quite successful in it so far. They also arrange several tradeshows to promote interaction and interaction between brand representatives for future collaborations.
Go4WorldBusiness is quite a well-reputed marketplace for wholesale trading businesses. You can consider Go4WorldBusiness as a highly competitive marketplace with all-sized organizations. Therefore, a major chunk of newly listed companies try to get their paid membership plans to help them stand out in the competition.
It features a secure messaging system for both buyers and sellers to communicate with each other directly. This also gives an opportunity to negotiate the prices, MOQ, and other terms and conditions. Other than that, it also offers safe payment and translation services to give a better procurement experience for both parties
Most business in Europe start their search for wholesale procurement from EuroPages. The main reason for this is the significant number of verified suppliers they feature from all around the world. Instead of focusing on the number of sellers, they prioritize distributors that have a rich history of working with multiple brands.
From a seller's point of view, it is usually challenging to get your products listed on EuroPages. However, once you have cleared all that, getting leads and sales gets quite easier. Most buyers on EuroPages look for high-quality products instead of low-priced deals. Thus, if you can supply goods that are superior in quality to your competitors, this is surely the best competitive advantage you can have on this platform.
Sale Hoo started its operations back in the year 2005. In a world where finding dropshipping suppliers is nothing less than a challenge, they work on promoting this business model. They have more than 8,000 verified distributors for B2B dropshipping. They also claim to personally verify all of them to make sure buyers can have a safe procurement experience.
Most dropshippers start their search for trusted suppliers from Sale Hoo and you should too. There are more than 1.6 million products listed on Sale Hoo which includes the trending products from leading brands. This variety of items surely includes the items you are looking for.
GlobalSpec is a focused B2B marketplace that deals in engineering-related products. There are more than 12 million products listed along with 4,000 specification guides. The majority of suppliers on this site are from the USA. Yet, you can expect to find exporters from other countries too.
It focuses on bringing together the market’s top names on a single platform. From old to the latest industrial equipment, GlobalSpec has reliable distributors for all of them. Another value they add is with the market news and analysis they share. You should surely consider checking out their market analysis section as it is written by seasoned professionals of this industry.
If you are a seller and looking to target the US market, See Biz can surely help you out. It carries a diverse network of buyers and suppliers from more than 10 industries. Unlike most B2B E-Commerce sites, See Biz is not a saturated marketplace. There is still more than enough room for some new sellers to join and get good leads, even organically.
Setting up a store on See Biz is quite simple. You can create your account, then add all the details of your product and send it for approval. If you ever get puzzled at any stage, you can contact their support staff to get their assistance.
These are a few common challenges sellers face on B2B marketplaces.
Creating Customer Loyalty
In today’s digital age, buyers have more options than ever before. On one side it has given several opportunities to buyers, it has also made it tougher for sellers to build a long-term trading relationship.
To retain buyers, sellers can offer exclusive discounts on repeat purchases or additional services. However, most companies even find it easier to acquire new clients than retain them. When it comes to building a brand or a strong reputation in the market, loyal buyers are a must to have.
Intense Market Saturation
Most of the popular wholesale trading marketplaces are already saturated with an endless number of sellers. It makes entry difficult for new distributors, especially if they are only relying on organic growth.
Considering the growth trend, the market is likely to get more saturated over time. Thus, if any business is looking to make an entry, this is the time to do it. To compete with the top sellers it is recommended to subscribe to their paid membership plan or PPC to get some reach early on in the online selling journey.
Avoiding Frauds
Even though most B2B E-Commerce sites have safe payment methods to keep importers' and exporters' payments safe, many scammers manage to rip off the other party. Whenever you are using a B2B E-Commerce marketplace for buying or selling it is crucial to read their guidelines to stay safe and avoid potential frauds.
As per the industry experts by 2025, around 80% of the total deals made between importers and suppliers will be made online. This number should be enough to understand the significant trend change B2B marketplaces are going to bring in the coming years. Even of now, most procurement officers start their research online and set the prices and quality as a benchmark to compare in the local market. This trend started in the USA, but slowly and gradually became common all across the globe.
Following are the ongoing trends in the B2B marketplaces.
Mobile Friendliness
A major chunk of buyers have started using mobile phones to use the internet. Plus, the way mobile apps are getting common, the traffic of websites is on a decline. Sites that have a better user interface for buyers also have better visit-to-conversion ratios. Thus, if you are planning to run a paid campaign on a marketplace, their user interface can also be a factor in checking out the return on investment.
Google Search
It is observed that many high-paying clients use Google as their primary source to search for specific products to buy. Therefore, B2B E-Commerce sites have started to invest on their SEO to rank their product pages on relevant queries. It gives more exposure and reach to products listed on the site than only relying on the search made on the website.
Safe Messaging and Payment Methods
As the internet is getting more common with every passing day, scammers are coming up with new techniques to steal information such as payment methods, credit cards, and more. To help out, B2B E-Commerce websites are investing in having more safe payment and messaging facilities. Despite all of this many scammers manage to steal critical information. However, it can be stopped if you stick to all the guidelines they provide for contacting and paying the client.
The way businesses are adapting to online procurement methods, having an online presence has become the need of the hour. If you are also looking to start a wholesale business, you should consider going through multiple B2B marketplaces as all of them are unique in different ways. Each one has quite a different-sized audience with different procurement requirements and buying behavior. As most sites are free to join, you can also have your products listed on multiple sites to increase your chances of getting leads and expanding your business. Furthermore, you should also understand the behavior of users of each site and make your strategies accordingly.
