B2B eCommerce Market: Pivotal Developments reshape Market Dynamics

B2B eCommerce deals with goods or services between businesses using online sales portals. Orders are received digitally instead of by manual orders with the help of human assets. In general, it is used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a company’s sales efforts. Inkwood Research predicts that the global B2B eCommerce market will be valued at $247.64 billion by 2030, surging with a 21.07% CAGR from 2022 to 2030.

Social Media: The New Anchor for Businesses

Several businesses sell their products and services on social media platforms suited to their niche without compromising the overall boost in revenue and customer experience. According to Forbes, companies spent over $537 billion in 2021 on digital advertising. Social media has therefore become the front door for B2B eCommerce.

In addition, according to data compiled by GWI, as of July 2021, social media platforms were used by 96% of global internet users, followed by chat & messaging platforms with 95%. Hence, B2B companies across various sectors leverage eCommerce via social media to capture the attention of the buyers and make sale conversions. Some of these sectors include clothing, automotive, consumer electronics, construction, food & beverages, etc.

Furthermore, there has been a significant rise in the demand and adoption of social commerce globally. Social commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services directly within a social media platform. This eCommerce model moves social media beyond its conventional role by encouraging users to complete the purchase process without leaving their preferred social media applications, which significantly adds to the user experience and minimizes payment steps, augmenting market growth across various sectors.

How is B2B eCommerce reshaping Key Sectors?

• Food & Beverages

The demand for online channels in the food & beverage market is growing with customers’ expectations for accuracy, transparency, and efficiency. It has become essential for food & beverage suppliers to offer eCommerce and online self-service for their customers as they shift their spending based on the best end-to-end customer experience. According to an FMI survey, in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic, online food & beverage purchases were around 3% of online sales.

However, in March 2020, 80% of shoppers who made online food or beverage purchases intended to do so again, impacting the eCommerce market significantly. As per our analysis, the food & beverage sector is expected to record the fastest growth in the global eCommerce market under the product type segment.

• Beauty & Personal Care

Inkwood Research estimates that the beauty & personal care B2B eCommerce market is set to project a 20.62% CAGR by the end of 2030. The market players are creating and launching their B2B eCommerce websites and marketplaces pertaining to beauty & personal care products. For instance, in 2021, Landing International, a leading B2B eCommerce platform, launched an online marketplace that provides a platform for retailers to purchase from new and independent cosmetics suppliers. Global cosmetic giants like Lakme, Maybelline, MAC, etc., are leveraging these platforms to boost their manufacturing and sales.

• Consumer Electronics

Our analysis projects that the consumer electronics segment will capture most of the revenue shares in the global B2B eCommerce market. Besides, the rising interest of global players in consumer electronic eCommerce platforms contributes to reducing costs and helping companies garner large consumer bases. In this regard, cost reductions are enabled by applications like network as a service (NaaS), data as a service (DaaS), storage as a service (STaaS), and back-end as a service (BaaS).

Additionally, they improve efficiency by automating manual processes for B2B consumer electronic companies like eBay Inc, Amazon.com, IndiaMart IndiaMesh, Rakuten, etc., increasing opportunities for manufacturers to collaborate with suppliers and distributors.

Easy Payment Modes: Businesses Emphasize Convenience

Market players from every sector increasingly incorporate advanced payment modes in their eCommerce marketplaces to ease customer payment processes. The changes in B2B buyer behavior and a strong focus on streamlining purchasing processes are prompting the companies operating in the B2B eCommerce industry, which in turn offers different types of payment methods such as mobile wallets and third-party payments, as part of the efforts to make B2B transactions more convenient.

Market players from every sector increasingly incorporate advanced payment modes in their eCommerce marketplaces to ease customer payment processes. This is attributed to B2B buyer behavior changes and a strong focus on streamlining purchasing processes. Additionally, this facilitates different types of payment methods, such as mobile wallets and third-party payments, as part of the efforts to make B2B transactions more convenient.

Also, businesses find account-based transfers more appealing due to their improved speed and security. Minimal payment steps ensure that consumers do not have time to change their minds about a purchase, which in turn, adds to the revenue of the businesses, boosting the market growth.

Furthermore, advancements and improvements in real-time payment technologies are expected to foster their adoption and create a favorable environment to perform online business transactions. A range of companies across the globe is making significant investments in real-time payment technologies and automated payables, which is expected to contribute to market growth during the forecast period.

B2B eCommerce: What More to Expect?

B2B leaders and market players are actively embracing more and more channels which is the new normal for marketing and sales and is known as omnichannel sales. Consumers make use of different sales channels such as videoconferencing, online marketplaces, face-to-face, or online chat, at different stages of their buying journey, which offers them a seamless shopping experience via multiple channels of operation, including mobile shopping, online desktop, and mobile experiences as well as brick-and-mortar stores. Such developments project growth opportunities for the global B2B eCommerce market.