B2B e-commerce is becoming a new trend recently due to many factors. Partly due to the government's push for business digital transformation, another reason is due to the great impact of the Covid-19 pandemic boosts wholesale activities in the online environment that hit its record.
Many enterprises see the need for technology transformation for a B2B website instead of in-person sales. These things combined caused many businesses to start to transform and expand their B2B business model. That is the reason that countless B2B e-commerce websites were born.
In this article, we will learn about what B2B wholesale e-commerce is, the role of this platform, and its benefits for buyers and sellers!
B2B stands for "business-to-business". B2B wholesale e-commerce means a business online selling products in large quantities to other businesses over the Internet instead of selling directly to individual customers.
The purchasing corporation either utilizes the products internally (for manufacturing or consumption) or resells them to individual consumers in lesser amounts.
Some examples of famous B2B wholesale e-commerce websites that we cannot ignore are Alibaba, Amazon Business, eBay, ECVV, Global Sources, Berlin Packaging, Casey's Distributing, Mountain Crest Gardens, etc.
Not only regular wholesale, online wholesale always has its own advantages that retail does not have. Simply, customers who buy in bulk will always have their own special offers and privileges.
Wholesale websites allow wholesale buyers to conveniently place bulk orders with just a few simple taps. Besides, the delivery time is fast thanks to the reduction of many intermediary order steps (Quotation, Sales Contract, Purchase Order, Order confirmation, etc.)
Wholesale websites often set wholesale prices for customers. As a result, wholesale customers can optimize costs more than buying at retail websites. Help them save the maximum cost of sourcing, purchasing, and ordering.
Besides, in the process of transporting goods, there are many stages to go through, so each time of delivery, there are many costs incurred. Therefore, if a customer buys goods in bulk, this stage will save a lot of time and costs, as well as you can manage the number of goods more easily, minimizing the risks that may arise.
Moreover, some websites also have attractive discounts or reward points when customers buy in bulk, saving money for them.
Buying wholesale goods, in addition to having a large number of goods for consumption, also enjoys discount policies, discounting % of the total bill across categories.
This is one of the business methods to earn more profit on each product when sold to customers. Usually, for each purchase from a wholesale source, retailers will receive a discount (commission) for their order, which means they will be able to buy goods at a low price and earn more profit from the difference in product price when sold.
When purchasing, finding, and referring to models and prices take a lot of time. When a business has a B2B website, referencing the model helps buyers save time and money.
When buying goods in small quantities, small businesses often run out of goods, and suddenly sold out. The method of buying wholesale goods not only helps wholesalers get a large number of goods but also gets priority when they are in stock, helping to ensure a more stable source of goods.
When your business moves to B2B wholesale, your customers will also change. If before, you sold directly to individual customers, now you will provide a large source of goods for businesses. Your direct customers are then also large customers, not retail ones. The market you reach is also larger with more potential for growth.
Maximum support for offline sales with online, ready-made, automatic data. Help you easily control the quantity of goods in/out flexibly.
Wholesale customers are potential customers with great purchasing power. And usually, wholesale customers will be able to buy goods in the medium and long term. Therefore, you will also have a more stable source of consumption.
In addition, this is also a huge source of consumption. If you have to sell 100 products to 100 different retail customers, you only need to sell one order with 100 products to a wholesale customer, for example. So, it would be great if you have 100, 1000, or even more wholesale customers! Switching to selling wholesale websites helps you reach even more such wholesale customers!
Moreover, current markets grow more robust, and new markets become accessible when the distribution market shifts to Internet channels.
Your company can benefit from an integrated B2B e-commerce system. Examples? Reach out to new consumer segments that were previously unprofitable to serve. Another example: multilingual/multi-currency/native tax and privacy in-app support remove geographic obstacles. There are many more examples of how your competitors are leveraging their e-commerce solutions to expand.
Managing items on the internet aids in the creation of a scientific, orderly, and highly available system for the organization.
The product list is displayed scientifically, completely, simply searchable, and filterable to aid store administration. It is simple to adjust prices, product qualities, and other information, and it is immediately communicated to customers.
Everything is done through the Internet, which is quite convenient. There will be no more traditional categories!
Digital wholesaling is also quite convenient in today's internet and e-commerce era. It not only assists store owners in monitoring product purchases, sales, and updates but also aids in financial accounting. It makes it easier for business owners to manage, finance, and balance sales plans by providing them with timely and accurate buying and selling data.
In addition, the information collected from the online environment will provide organizations with many perspectives on the status of brand awareness. Those data will be the basis for planning, evaluating as well as finding and giving options to promote business. From there, determine the direction for the business in the future.
You probably already know the multi-store mode on PrestaShop. This is a great creation for a multi-store online business that an offline business can't have.
E-commerce can build a multi-brand website, and multi-business model (B2B – Business to Business, B2C – Business to customer). You can both wholesale to other businesses/stores, and retail directly to individual customers. At the same time, you can easily manage the store's status.
It can be seen that B2B wholesale e-commerce is a potential and recommended direction for businesses with many benefits to both sellers and wholesale buyers. Nowadays, more and more businesses are choosing to convert to this business form.
If you are thinking and want to build or convert your existing PrestaShop website into a wholesale web, you can refer to our WHOLESALE B2B module on the PrestaHero website. With years of experience working in this field, developing modules as well as doing market research, this module fully integrates all the necessary functions which can help you easily build and manage your e-commerce wholesale activities!
We hope you find this article useful and can help you gain a better understanding of B2B wholesale e-commerce!
If you need any further assistance or have any questions regarding the Wholesale B2B module