How B2B marketplace is different from an e-commerce website?
Many people have confusion in their mind that online B2B marketplace and e-commerce is the same thing. This is not so and the marketplace is just an e-commerce website but all e-commerce websites are not necessarily a marketplace. However, both the online marketplace and e-commerce website are used for the same purpose and that is for online business purposes. Before moving further it is very essential to clear the concept of both the B2B marketplace and e-commerce.
B2B marketplace is an online platform in which the owner of several websites allows third-party sellers to sell their products on this online platform and they provide the invoice to the customers directly. That means through the B2B marketplace various sellers can market their products to their customers. Hence you can simply say that the B2B marketplace is an online platform that is beneficial for both the sellers and buyers. Thus you can simply say that the B2B marketplace is almost the same as the physical market which benefits both the B2B buyers as well as sellers. On the contrary, e-commerce is a single or multiple online brand stores in which a specific brand are allowed to sell their product on their website. In the e-commerce website, all the inventory of the website is owned by the owner of the website and he is responsible for creating the invoice for his customer and also for paying the value-added tax. Since the owner of the e-commerce website owns everything that he sells in the online platform there is no option to register as a seller on the e-commerce website.
Difference between a B2B marketplace and e-commerce website
Since the B2B marketplace and e-commerce website sounds confusing we have come up with some of their difference which will make the concept clearer in the following:
- Marketing approach and targeting: The marketing approach and targeting the concept of the B2B marketplace and e-commerce website is different. Generally, it is observed that the e-commerce website mainly focuses on target buyers but in the B2b marketplace, you have to target both the buyers as well as the sellers since sellers remain at the heart of the B2B marketplace platform.
- Scalability: B2B marketplace does not take the headache of buying or selling any product and as such, it takes less financial risks than that of the e-commerce websites which needs to invests its stock consistently. Again it is seen that the B2B marketplace gains economies of scale more easily which allows them to expand at a much faster rate than that of the e-commerce website.
- Large inventory: When the inventory gets larger it becomes difficult for the buyers to find what they are looking for. Thus large inventory often puts extra effort into the marketing for drawing the attention of the visitors even if the customers or the visitors of the website are interested. Hence, many times it is seen that keeping a larger inventory in stock also causes a huge problem. Thus every e-commerce website has to get rid of its unsold products but the market place can do this by directly deactivating it with a push-button.
