
// Development
How to Create B2B Marketplace Software
// Development
Previously, launching a B2B marketplace was a rather non-trivial task, which included a lot of complex and time-consuming actions, such as creating an e-commerce website, developing a design, setting up an ordering system, integrating web payments and delivery options, and much more. But now it’s much simpler: anyone can use marketplace softwares and without any difficulty create a marketplace like Amazon or Alibaba Business.
In this article, you will learn how to create marketplace softwares to launch B2B (Business to business) online stores. What you need to consider, what functions to add and how to find a promising niche for your project, as well as what things businessmen value in such platforms. The instruction consists of six steps.
So, if an entrepreneur wants to create a wholesale online store for food producers and retailers, then this will most likely be an online store focused on selling goods according to the tender system (like on eBay). If the entrepreneur wants to build a logistics platform for networking between transport companies and their customers, then such a platform will be more oriented towards building relationships.
In other words, the first step in developing a marketplace software is to choose a niche and target audience. That's what you will choose from:
In addition, it is also important to consider the size of the business you are targeting. If these are companies with relatively small incomes and staff, then they will probably choose a business model with a subscription, the ability to choose features, and technical support from a marketplace software provider. Whereas a large business will be ready to pay a lot at once to get a standalone secure solution with great opportunities for individual customization of an online store.
The most common business models of B2B marketplace software:
Key Features Required for B2B Wholesale Trading Platform:
Detailed Product Description. The product or service card should include the product specification, price, availability information, delivery options, and the ability to download HD videos and images. The page should contain as much detail as possible in order to remove any obstacles in the decision-making process. At the same time, all options must be implemented in several options so that your customers have the opportunity to customize the trading platform for themselves.
Automatic invoice processing. Allows the business to quickly process invoices and receive the necessary data. The choice of payment solutions most depends on the region and the size of the companies. There should be an option to automatically divide users of the marketplace by region (currencies).
Real-time order reports. You should also provide B2B suppliers with access to advanced and detailed order analytics. This option will allow them to accumulate and analyze sales data in real time, which is important for marketing and sales forecasting. For example, the Joor fashion wholesale market offers advanced order reports, where brands can track sales and analyze their performance.
Personal recommendations. If there are many products with similar characteristics on your customers ’sites, it may be difficult for customers to find what they need. Algorithms that track user actions and recommend similar products or services to them will help here. Now they use AI.
Personalized prices. In most cases, pricing in the B2B industry is significantly different from prices in the C2C and B2C segment. Quite often, prices in B2B markets change depending on sales, season, demand-to-supply, and other things. Therefore, many B2B trading floors have calculators with which the buyer can find out the price for today.
Marketing management system. This functionality will help suppliers create multi-channel marketing to improve customer interaction, and will also provide the ability to remotely manage all operations and track important analytics in real time.
As you can see from the table, creating a platform for launching online stores like Alibaba will cost from 215 to 431 thousand dollars. But, this is true only for SaaS and full-fledged stand-alone B2B marketplace software solutions. If you just create a WordPress theme, then it will be much cheaper - from 500 to 5 thousand dollars. In addition, you can find free open source software and improve it, which will cost from 5 to 20 thousand dollars.