B2B portals - Online Route to International Market
July 24, 2008 – 2:03 amGoing global has never been easier and more affordable for a small to medium-sized enterprise, especially from the relative comfort of one’s own factory or office. While traditional marketing channels have included trade shows, catalogues and trade associations, the internet has ushered in new tools to bring trading partners together by using business to business (B2B) portals and online market places.
Usually, a user has a tendency to avoid adapting to new methods of doing things and more so to a thing which is related to technology that initially appears to be expensive. This is a misconception of the small businessman regarding online business too, but in reality, online based businesses reduce one’s cost and time considerably. Marketing done through the portals is exclusively online thus there are no print, distribution or postage costs plus it is measurable through sophisticated tracking software. These online market places offer services like free business listing or business directory listing to encourage businesses to take their business global. Data on B2B portals is segregated like Indian Business Directory, Manufacturers Directory, Service Providers Directory, etc.
Companies have realized having a web site is not enough for international business. With millions of web sites and high cost of SEO makes it impossible to depend on search engines alone. Buyers need to be aware that search engines have no authentication and verification, so they can never be sure if site they have found is from a legitimate company or a phish website until they do their own investigation. Professional buyers often find search engines less helpful because the wide variety of website formats makes it hard work to compare one seller with another. B2B online marketing has become an essential part from buyer’s perspective as well as seller’s perspective. For buyers it facilitates through suppliers directory in searching new suppliers, post buying requests, compare different players and they can also search for used or new goods. For a seller point of view, it makes easy to find out buyers for their products, they could sell online new as well as used products. In some cases while company website functioned as web shop of one’s products or/and services, B2B profiles of one’s company served as feeders to one’s web shop. Thus, B2B portals are positioned to become most sought after route to international market.