Many industry leaders have acknowledged that B2B marketplaces are here to stay and will not disappear.
Today, there are successful marketplaces in almost every B2B vertical.
Distributors are launching their marketplaces, industry associations are embracing marketplaces, B2B marketplace startups are thriving, and Amazon Business, of course, has surpassed $25 billion in annual sales and continues to grow rapidly.
B2B marketplaces have appeared out of nowhere.
Customers in the B2B sector are clear: they want the marketplace experience.
In an ideal world, you'd be selling on multiple marketplaces in your vertical, rather than just one.
You want to diversify your marketplace channels and hope that your industry's multiple B2B marketplaces continue to thrive.
The answer is simple for those who see B2B marketplaces as a critical part of their business strategy: it's probably too late to build.
In most B2B distribution verticals today, there are too many B2B marketplace competitors with significant scale in each industry to justify starting from scratch.
If you've decided to start your marketplace, the next step is to figure out how much you'll need.
Do you need to own and control the market, or can you?
Should you go for a minority stake and partner, or should you go for a majority stake and go it alone?
Choosing the right level of marketplace ownership and control for your company is critical to the success of your B2B marketplace strategy.
Establishing a strategic partnership with the right B2B marketplace is an excellent way to dip your toe into the water if your leadership team is unsure how to engage with B2B marketplaces.
You must first understand what makes B2B marketplaces tick to determine how your company should interact with them.
Whether you're looking to partner with or scale your B2B marketplace, figuring out your product data strategy is the first step.
B2B marketplaces are stepping up to the plate to address these issues.
The business model of a B2B marketplace forces it to solve for data in areas of the industry that are frequently ignored or neglected by large, established distributors.
B2B marketplaces also go the other way, offering software tools to their buyers and sellers that go beyond the transaction.
Today, there are successful marketplaces in almost every B2B vertical.
Many of them are rapidly expanding, but only a few in each vertical will emerge victoriously.
Large distributors can help create a future for B2B distribution that is more competitive and dynamic than what we've seen in B2C by finding the right ways to play with B2B marketplaces, whether it's selling products, entering strategic partnerships, investing, or more.
Marketplaces are an essential part of B2B's future, but distributors still have a say in shaping that future.