Wholesale e-commerce platforms for the B2B sector

The digital revolution has transformed the way businesses operate in all sectors, including the field of wholesale and B2B trading. In this article, we will delve into the world of e-commerce platforms specifically for the wholesale and B2B sectors, understanding their significance, benefits, and best practices.

Let’s start by defining the terms wholesale and B2B.

Simplifying a great deal, wholesale or wholesale is a sales model in which a company, instead of selling a product individually to the end consumer (Business-to-Consumer or B2C), chooses to sell the product in large quantities-and usually at a discounted price-to other companies, which essentially act as an intermediary between the manufacturer and the distributor or retailer, hence the acronym Business-to-Business (B2B).

Traditionally, wholesale sales in the B2B sphere took place via telephone, e-mail or preconfigured spreadsheets. Compounded by the increasing digitization of businesses, this sales model has evolved in the direction of electronic commerce or online e-commerce.

In fact, over the past 20 years, online wholesale e-commerce has grown significantly in popularity as even more traditional B2B companies have moved their operations online.

According to the report “Business-to-Business E-commerce Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis” by Grand View Research, the global business-to-business e-commerce market was valued at $7,907.07 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2 percent from 2023 to 2030.

The changing behavior of Business-to-Business (B2B) buyers and the emphasis on simplifying purchasing processes are driving B2B e-commerce companies to offer new ways of purchasing and payment in an effort to make B2B transactions more convenient.

According to a study by Statista, the value of the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce market in Italy reached 410 billion euros in 2019, up from previous years and nearly double the value of online purchases made by companies in 2015.

In Italy, the share of business-to-business (B2B) organizations’ revenue from digital channels has increased from 25 percent in 2020 to 32 percent in 2022. The increase is expected to continue, with the share of revenue from digital channels expected to be 40 percent in 2024. [source: Statista, Share of business-to-business (B2B) organizations’ revenue coming from digital channels in Italy in selected years from 2020 to 2024]

However, the spread of the B2B e-commerce model has not seen uniform growth across all wholesale sectors.

In 2019, most business-to-business (B2B) purchases of automotive products and services took place online:85 percent of automotiveB2B transactions were conducted through e-commerce channels.

In comparison, B2B purchases in the fashion industry remained mostly excluded from online platforms, as e-commerce accounted for only 22 percent of B2B transactions. [source: Statista, E-commerce share of B2B market in Italy 2019, by sector]

As wholesale sales transactions have shifted to digital channels, new technological solutions such as B2B-specific e-commerce platforms have naturally appeared, bringing significant benefits in terms of functionality, process simplification, and beyond.

Historically, the B2B sales process has been predominantly based on building long-term relationships between sellers and potential customers.

The rise of e-commerce has completely changed the scenario, offering many advantages to B2B companies that choose to shift sales to an online store.

1. Access to a global market.

Wholesale companies that choose the e-commerce route are not constrained by physical location and can easily reach customers around the world through their online presence, from their website, to social media, to various dedicated marketplaces.

With this omnichannel experience, customers have more opportunities to find you as they move between devices and channels. According to research by Wunderman Thompson, 49 percent of B2B purchases are made online, and 68 percent of B2B buyers plan to increase their use of digital channels for purchases in the future.

Selling wholesale online is an excellent opportunity to expand into new markets and reach a previously unattainable customer base without investing in a physical location.

2. Potential for revenue growth and operating cost reduction

At the end of the day, what drives most companies is the opportunity to increase revenue and improve the profitability of their business.

In the case of wholesalers or wholesalers, this is of key importance: by selling wholesale and at discounted prices, they generally walk a fine line of profitability.

By using an e-commerce platform, they can then greatly reduce or even eliminate unnecessary costs while expanding their online presence.

Too often the effectiveness of wholesale processes is limited by outdated communication methods or outdated, static online sites. By integrating an e-commerce platform to their website, wholesalers can offer potential buyers intuitive and interactive ways to explore their inventory, identify what they want to buy, and expedite the process.

3. Automation of manual processes

Using an ecommerce platform to sell wholesale products also allows you to automate time-consuming manual processes. With the right platform, tasks such as checkout, billing, and inventory management are done in a few clicks instead of by hand, saving time and labor.

People can then devote their resources to other strategic activities of the company: for example, sales teams can devote themselves to working with larger, more complex customers instead of dealing with order processing for bulk purchases, which can be easily completed through a special template on the website.

Another activity that can greatly benefit from automation is the quotation process: through appropriate integrations, buyers can request quotes directly within the e-commerce platform in just a few clicks.

Through integration with enterprise assets such as CRM, this channels these contacts into a centralized location to be quickly managed by sales and customer service.

By simplifying this process, the customer and sales staff can go from quote to order in just a few clicks, eliminating one of the most tedious and time-consuming daily manual tasks for both parties.

4. Improved data-driven decision making

When you have e-commerce integrated with analytics data, you can access granular levels of data and customer insights, such as:

This data is invaluable for business intelligence activities and can be used to drive marketing campaigns, product mix definition, pricing, discounts, promotional sales, and so on.

Combined with feedback from sales and customer service staff, they can ultimately help to better understand customer needs and make the right decisions for better results.

5. Improving user experience and customer relations

Wholesale buyers are a profoundly different type of customer than the end consumer in B2C sales: decision-making processes are generally more time-consuming and may require the involvement of several actors, extensive information research, negotiation of terms of sale, and establishment of long-term partnerships.

In this long process, many shoppers do not spend time sitting in front of a computer, but instead rely on their mobile devices to find product information while on the move, on the go, or in other “on-the-go” situations.

A B2B e-commerce platform that includes a mobile version then allows the user to research options and make purchases directly from their cell phone. The move to the online marketplace has made shopping more convenient for B2B buyers who know what they need and have negotiated wholesale prices, as they can execute processes without having to involve sales.

What features are essential in a truly effective B2B e-commerce solution?

Wholesale and B2B e-commerce platforms have emerged as a real game-changer in the business landscape, offering unprecedented growth opportunities for companies of all sizes and commodity sectors.

As reported by the aforementioned studies and also demonstrated by our case study, sectors such as fashion and apparel have ample room for growth in the B2B e-commerce market.

Wholesalers who use ecommerce to sell to B2B buyers can transform their business by being able to streamline processes, expand their online presence and increase their market competitiveness.

As wholesale companies increasingly shift to online operations, creating more personalized experiences tailored to the needs of B2B buyers is therefore necessary to stand out from the competition. With a dedicated ecommerce platform, companies can manage wholesale orders in a single touchpoint that unifies front-end and back-end experience, order management, catalog and price list updates, and the creation of integrated personalization features to enhance the B2B customer experience.