| |
| |
|
Advertising Information |
|
|
|
Why Suppliers Should Use B2B Exchanges
Business to business e-commerce is on the rise! Worldwide B2B e-commerce revenues are estimated to reach around US$ 2 trillion in 2004. This is a significant leap from last year's US$ 1.4 trillion. However, according to a recent survey, although, more than 70% of companies have already used Internet as a purchasing channel, a mere ten percent of their overall spending is directed via the Internet! Contrary to popular believe, this means, B2B e-commerce has still large potential to grow. Internet has the capacity of changing the conventional way of doing business. Today, you can not only buy and sell your products and services on the Internet, you can, virtually, shift all your business processes to online solutions as well. If you take advantages of new Internet based technologies, the outcome would be tremendously beneficial to your business. How to do this without spending a fortune and not putting a huge pressure on scarce corporate resources? The possible answer could be B2B exchanges! A B2B exchange is an online marketplace, where buyers, sellers and intermediaries form communities, exchange views, offer products and services, and conduct business transactions. By becoming a member of a B2B exchange you can benefit in both cost-saving and revenue increase - two primary requirements of productivity increase. 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 that otherwise would have been untapped. Prospective customers can buy products and services from you, using various venues and features of the B2B exchange, where you are a member. Marketplace: All B2B exchanges include a marketplace, where suppliers can post sales offer of their products and services. Buyers, looking for specific products, can easily find best suppliers that suit them from the marketplace. A populated marketplace can easily become a good sales channel for a supplier. Electronic catalog: As a member of the B2B exchange, you are allowed to add all your products or services to the consolidated online repository of the exchange. Adding your products to the repository helps to create online standardize electronic version of your product specification - if you don't have that before - and use the same catalog with other electronic sales systems - even with other B2B exchanges using XML interface. You can publish sales offer of your entire catalog to the marketplace, eliminating a need for other web presence. You can add products or services to the repository one by one or you can use XML interface to upload your whole electronic catalog. Web Store: Some B2B exchanges allow you to convert or integrate your website to their exchange. This helps you to handle sales conveniently from your website and the marketplace of the exchange seamlessly. You can make a web store from scratch with the help of integrated website builder of the B2B exchange as well. Auctions: One of the great features of many B2B exchange is their auction systems. As we all know from the immense success of Ebay, auctioning is a great way of selling products online. Some exchanges boast reverse auction system, where suppliers bid for a deal posted by a buyer. As a supplier, you can participate in those tenders without any extra cost involved. Low customer acquisition cost Your mere presence in the B2B exchange might bring you new customers! Since the buyers come to the exchange themselves; your cost of getting customers through this channel is relatively low in comparison to other traditional channels. You can even increase your visibility by advertising in the key places of the exchange, where your prospective buyers frequently visit. Being highly targeted, these ads produce incredible results. Improve customer service Ability to have constant interaction through the B2B 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. The integrated functions of an exchange such as sales management, internal messaging service, lead management, etc. also help you managing customers service process effectively. Efficient information sharing method When needed, you can instantly update your catalog and inform customers about changes. Whether you are launching a new product or having a web seminar, through the B2B exchange you can share the information more efficiently. Some B2B Exchanges use sophisticated knowledge management systems to create, capture, reprocess and reutilize information intended for specific group of audience. These contents or information can be displayed on demand or in time to a member - when needed. Business processes management One of the primary objectives of using B2B exchanges for you should be their ability to handle, run and administer various business processes. These solutions assist you to streamline your business, reduce overhead costs and reduce documentary errors. Using technologies in a bid to streamline business processes like supply chain is nothing new. Companies have been using various solutions to support product development, customer service, procurement and other integral processes for many years. Before the Internet era, many companies have invested enormous amount of money in infrastructure building to automate supply chain process. Today, thanks to the Internet, even small companies have opportunity to use highly sophisticated supply chain solutions for a small cost. Many B2B exchanges, such as Rusbiz.com, allow small companies to use supply chain management solution for a small fee. The major benefits of using supply chain solutions include: 1. Reduced sales time 2. Better inventory control 3. Lower overhead 4. Reduced manufacturing cycle time 5. Reduced cost of goods Business to business e-commerce is evolving very fast. The fact is, at one point, most of all business transactions will take place via the Internet. B2B exchanges are a way of building cost-effective e-business environment on the Internet, which is capable of producing concrete and quantifiable business benefits to the participants. 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/newsletters/newsletter32.htm
MORE RESOURCES:
Advertising - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
7 Suggestions for an i-Mom Friendly Web Site (e-commerce news and statistics) The Internet began as a male dominated medium, but those days are long gone and merchants are advised to make sure their websites are female friendly to faciliate the rising surge of busy i-Moms shopping online for their family and friends.Women now account for 51. A Beginners Guide To Setting Up A Successful Online Store A beginner's guide to setting up a successful online store Online selling is by no means a simple task. To sell products online not only requires making use of high end marketing strategies but also involves lots of planning. How to Boost Conversion Rates, While Lowering Merchant Account Fees! Using an Address Verification System (AVS) when processing your online credit card transactions can help to reduce the number of fraudulent transactions you receive. However, most online merchants don't know that using AVS can also reduce your number of legitimate orders. Google to Compete with PayPal? PayPal is secure in its domination over the electronic payment industry, at least for now.Following reports that Google planned to launch a new Internet payment service (nicknamed Google Wallet), Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, denied that Google would be directly competing with PayPal. Increasing E-commerce Website Sales With consumers purchasing billions of dollars of merchandise online each and every year, the Internet has become the key to financial security. The e-commerce business has consistently thrived well above all other online enterprises, and continues to flourish. Selecting The Right Shopping Cart For Your Website Shopping Cart Installation And SetupShopping cart technology has evolved to be a must-have feature for the internet seller. Most e-merchants are aware that shopping carts function to facilitate the purchasing process. 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. Online Florists - Send Flowers Online When Youre In a Hurry You did it again, didn't you? Forgot until the last minute that birthday, anniversary, graduation, promotion, or fill-in-the-blank-here. No fear, online florists are here. Web Store - Why Do You Need One? Internet has opened a new era of business opportunities. Each day, thousands of new consumers are joining the Internet. 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. When Do You Ask For A Refund? Have you ever asked to have your money refunded after buying something online? Do you do this often? What are the reasons you've asked for refunds? Savvy marketers will try to find out why without making you feel you should not have asked. This would be valuable information to them. Ecommerce Comes from Customer Satisfaction Online shopping is convenient, but many companies whose web sites do brisk sales often leave consumers wanting. That's according to ForeSee Results, a research company that studied customer satisfaction among Internet shoppers. The ClickBank E-Commerce Solution ClickBank.com can offer you multiple solutions for your e-commerce business. The Origins of E-Commerce What is the Internet?In order to provide a discussion on the Internet it is essential to provide a short description on what the Internet actually is. Put in the most basic of terms the Internet can be described of as a massive collection of computers that are sited around the world and that are connected together in order to create a huge network that allows information to be collated and shared by millions of people. Online Customer Service - The Cornerstone of a Successful Online Business Online customer service is still one of the most frequently overlooked aspects of running a successful online business. Yet, in the highly competitive world of Internet business, it could be (and should be) the one thing that sets you apart from your competition!Most Internet businesses that have a drive to succeed focus all of their time and resources on building a great site, and then trying to drive tons of traffic to that site. Excuse Me, Are You Wasting Traffic? The largest cost and concern of an internet business is customer acquisition; traffic. Both quantity and quality of traffic directly determines the succes of an internet business. Home Sweet Home Page "Your home page is the world's introduction to you and your company. Make it COUNT!" - Heidi RichardsThink of your home page as the cover of your brochure. Choosing an Ecommerce Shopping Cart Choosing an online shopping cart is a big decision. Unlike a traditional brick and mortar business, your website is your only chance to impress potential customers. eCommerce, How Much Does It cost? Making profits with your existing website design or creating a new online store can be exciting, affordable and most of all; rewarding. Mmmm . Simple Steps to Start a Profitable Member Only, Subscription Web Site Having a successful member only, paid membership site is one of the best ways to make money online. A successful membership site can give you the steady income of a CEO ?.
|
