| |
| |
|
Advertising Information |
|
|
|
Selling Globally Through a B2B Exchange
Participation in B2B Exchanges is increasingly becoming one of the fastest growing marketing methods for businesses looking for augmenting their client base beyond their local markets. Any good B2B Exchange offers direct contact with thousands of prospective buyers in a single location. For some new participants of a B2B Exchange, it appears to be a goldmine as they discover unexpected quantity of readymade clients without much effort from their side. Of course, there are many other great benefits companies can reap from getting involved in a B2B Exchange. What is a B2B Exchange? In a broader sense, Business to Business Exchange is an online platform where buyers and sellers come to communicate, collaborate and make business transactions. B2B Exchange caters a large number of participant companies as a community. The main objective of a B2B Exchange is to create a venue, filled with features that allow members to efficiently conduct business processes through the Internet. B2B Exchanges are also known as e-marketplaces. What are the benefits? B2B Exchanges are capable of helping companies in buying, selling and streamlining their business processes. The benefits of participating in a B2B exchange may include: a) Efficient inventory management: Integration of your products and services with the Electronic Catalog of the Exchange will help you manage inventory more effectively. b) Better customer relationship management: Ability to have constant interaction through the Exchange 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. c) New sales channel: By becoming a member of a B2B exchange, 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 which otherwise would have been untapped to you. d) Save significantly from reduced paper works: Automated supply chain management helps trimming down paper work greatly. e) Eliminate rogue spending: Consolidated and automated procurement and approval method stops unauthorized purchasing in a company. f) 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. Tips for Success The key to ensuring success with B2B Exchanges are in planning, active participation, learning the tools necessary to use the Exchange effectively and dedication to work through it. 1. Choosing the Right B2B Exchange Although, there are huge benefits in participating in a B2B Exchange, you have to be careful in selecting one. Not all B2B Exchanges might work for you. There are thousands of B2B Exchanges available on the Internet. Some are industry specific, some cater only certain geographical areas, and some concentrate more on delivering business tools to the participants. The challenge is to select the right B2B Exchange, which will serve your particular needs. In order to conduct the selection process you must establish certain goal. Possible objectives for you should be to: ? Generate sales ? Get access to a large numbers of buyers or sellers ? Find distributors and importers ? Enhance customer relationships through online tools ? Develop product awareness ? Extend market shares ? Conduct market research ? Streamline supply chain ? Automate selling process ? Adopt e-procurement Your goal should combine several of these objectives. In evaluating a B2B Exchange you also should consider whether it has following features, as these features are vital elements for any good B2B exchange. 1. Product catalog based on an industry-standard classification system 2. Product search capability within the marketplace and e-catalog 3. Directory of members 4. Product content adding and editing interface 5. Ability to promote products and services Other key characteristics of a B2B exchange also include: Simplicity - Primary tools of the exchange should be easy to learn and use. Significant membership base - The quantity of members should be big enough, so that new participants can expand their business from the very first day. Flexibility - The Exchange should add new and modify existing tools according to the market need. Neutrality - The Exchange owners should be unbiased and maintain absolute neutrality. Providing an open and transparent market for all the participants is an important constituent of the value proposition of a B2B exchange. 2. Preparation Participation in a B2B exchange in order to achieve successful result is a serious commitment. Study the exchange of your choice thoroughly. If they offer trial membership, subscribe! Spend time on learning the tools - how they work? Are they beneficial to you business? Proper preparation will help you: - saving money - making seamless adoption - increasing productivity right from the beginning - reaching your goals faster However, poor preparation can get you into serious trouble. - You may encounter higher costs - Productivity may suffer significantly - You even may be forced to abandon the whole idea 3. Adoption The primary factors of company productivity are Revenue Increase and Cost Cutting. Both are easily achievable if you adopt a quality B2B exchange, train your stuffs to use it effectively, integrate exchange's various tools to your advantage and slowly but consistently make it one of your primary channels for buying and selling. For more information on B2B exchanges or E-marketplace and how these Internet based platforms can help you, read other articles located at http://ezine.rusbiz.com/topic/2.html 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 nowshade@rusbiz.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Advertising - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Intranet Project - RAD or Waterfall? Building BridgesI have often used the analogy of building a bridge to explain to business colleagues the difference between Rapid Application Development (RAD) and Waterfall.Let's say that we are in the middle ages and the Mayor of Kingston-upon-Thames is evaluating whether or not to build a bridge over the river to the north side, to replace the current ferry. Succeed With Your Own Home Based Business An internet business is by far the best way to support yourself if you just cannot stand working for others for less money than you need to survive. It's also the best way to get out of a good paying job that just takes up too much of your precious short life working for someone else. E-Gold E-gold is a digital currency, used extensively on the Internet for making payments in exchange for goods and services.It is one of the first digital e-currency providers, having started in 1996. Why Ecommerce is Not Ready for My Daughter or Me As the mother of a teenage clothing fanatic I'm often at my local mall. It occurred to me that the shopping experience for my daughter is attractive to her not because she wants to spend my money, but because the experience of buying itself is so rich to the senses. Cheap Cigarettes, Discount Tobacco and Cigars Online - Is It Legal? Many people online today still believe that buying tobacco products via the Internet is an experience that is doomed to failure. Either, the package will go astray, or the HM Customs and Excise storm troopers will smash down the door and abseil from the roof to collect the pennies that they are allegedly due for "tax evasion". Leveraging Open Source Technology Open Source applications can bring unique value to business owners. Since the base application development costs of open source applications is free, small and medium business owners are able to leverage previously unobtainable technolgies against their sales objectives, operational costs and customer satisfaction levels. Merchant Account Insider Secrets - Accept Credit Cards Online The process of learning how to accept payments on the Internet is similar to the course of figuring out how to launch a business. What at first seems puzzling and intimidating may be viewed as straightforward and easy to understand if one has the right guide or manual. Merchant Accounts: What They Can Do For You Congratulations! You created an impulse in a customer to buy your product. One small catch? without some way to take their credit card number, your sale is as good as gone. Shopping Cart Features to Consider Often the simplest Web stores have the most success. But shoppers like special features depending upon the type of store you have, how you market and use them, and if you don't overwhelm the shopper. Credit Card Processing - 7 Things You Need to Know Before Opening an Online Merchant Account When considering opening an online merchant account to accept credit card orders, there are a lot of things you need to keep in mind. The best thing to do is learn all about credit card processing before you open your online merchant account so you can handle everything from the beginning rather than having to go back and make many changes. The Art of Being Human This isn't the first time I have written about the benefits of inserting a human voice or presence into your online communications. And I make no excuse for writing about this again. Are You Making These E-Commerce Excuses? (part 2) Last time, we started to take a look at the most common reasons why most people don't make progress on their e-commerce and Internet marketing goals. Today, we continue the discussion. Getting Started in ECommerce - Part One In 2004, Enquiro.com conducted a study of the search behaviors of men vs. Shopping Carts and the E-Aisles Have you ever gone to the store and thought you only needed a few things so you didn't grab a cart? The next thing you know your hands are full and groceries are crashing everywhere making a big mess. If only you had gotten a cart. Is It Easy to Build An E-commerce Web Site? --Online Commerce--E-Commerce website is all about selling products and services over the Internet. Amateurs may think that it is easy to build your own e-commerce system and our advice to you is to stay away from these amateurs. eCommerce Software Solutions All of the long, grueling nights and an unknown number of working weekends spent converting your dream into reality finally paid off-in a big way! Affiliates are signing up every single day and the clicks have really turned into cash. Your success is not limited to a lonely website but several and all of them are helping you move very diverse product lines. Selling Online for Newbies If you are interested in selling online, it is quite easy to get started. First of all you must have a product or service to sell. Select a Niche Market for Ecommerce Choosing a carefully pinpointed niche market should be one of the first steps that an internet business owner has to take. A very common way of describing a niche market is 'a targeted group of individuals with very specific and similar needs or interests. 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. 7 Questions to Ask A Potential Internet Merchant Account Provider Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with disastrous results. I made the mistake of taking information at face value and relying on the ecommerce merchant account provider's good reputation in other areas.
|
