Connected Commerce and Flexible Payments: Key Ingredients to a Successful B2B Marketplace

B2B marketplaces are on track for massive growth, accounting for 1.3% of all B2B sales last year. With 750 vertical industry marketplaces (and counting), Digital Commerce 360 predicts the total number of B2B marketplaces could surpass 1,000 within the next two years. Over half of B2B buyers (59%) are now making more than a quarter of their purchases through digital marketplaces. 

However, there are unique challenges B2B marketplaces must address to fully capture this potential, attract more buyers, and increase conversions and revenue. This blog explores how B2B marketplaces can meet these challenges and become a more effective sales channel.

From Discovery to Payments: Roadblocks to Address

B2B marketplaces sell to businesses, which have unique purchasing requirements that are quite different from those of consumers. Businesses often use eProcurement systems to issue purchase orders, and they expect to be able to pay by invoice, on terms, and not only via credit card. This gives rise to the following challenges:

• Incompatible systems. Today, ecommerce sites are expected to seamlessly integrate with buyers' eProcurement systems. The unique complexities of integration can lead to costly delays and strained supplier relationships if not properly understood, planned, and executed.

• Poor catalog management. Disorganized catalogs with inconsistent and inaccessible product data make it hard for buyers to find what they need and for suppliers to ensure their catalog is always up-to-date. This leads to buyer frustration, missed sales opportunities, and reduced customer satisfaction.

• Limited payment options and terms. Marketplaces that don’t allow businesses to pay on net terms or via their preferred payment methods, including ACH and wire, lose buyers to suppliers that do.

• Complexity and overhead cost. Offering net terms at scale is complex and resource-intensive. It requires a large credit team to manage credit risk and an AR team to manage collection, disputes, and more.    

In summary, outdated platforms, inefficient catalog management, limited payment options, and lack of automation are all issues that eventually create friction and slow down the purchasing process.

How the Right Tech Stack Sets B2B Marketplaces Up for Success 

Imagine a B2B buyer navigating a digital marketplace where transactions are as smooth and efficient as a top-tier B2C experience. They can quickly find products, get instant credit approval, and choose flexible payment options – all while automated systems handle order processing, invoicing, and payment collection in the background.

TradeCentric’s B2B Connected Commerce solutions coupled with Balance’s Marketplace OS bridge the gap between B2B marketplaces and buyers to meet the ever-changing needs of today's digital buyers. TradeCentric streamlines supplier integration, simplifies the purchasing experience, and automates order processing, while Balance enhances payment methods, automates payouts, and centralizes transaction data.

TradeCentric’s B2B Connected Commerce Solutions

TradeCentric’s integration solutions for B2B marketplaces address the challenges of incompatible eProcurement & eCommerce systems and poor catalog management. Here’s how:

• Seamless integration. TradeCentric enables seamless integration between B2B marketplaces and ERP/eProcurement systems via solutions such as PunchOut and PO Automation. This connection minimizes errors and boosts efficiency by aligning tasks  such as searching for products, validating inventory and order processing.

• Automated data transfer. Automating the transfer of purchasing data between systems minimizes manual data entry, reduces errors, and accelerates fulfillment.

• Real-time access to data. Having real-time visibility into inventory, order status, and financial data, directly from their eProcurement systems, empowers businesses to quickly adapt to market shifts.

• Custom catalogs. Providing custom catalogs that showcase key customer details like negotiated pricing and tailored product selections improves the buying experience and ensures procurement policy compliance.

• Enhanced security. Security is crucial to protect sensitive data, comply with regulations, and guard against cyber threats. A trustworthy integration provider offers encryption, secure authentication, and regular audits to prevent breaches, build trust, and reduce risks, letting you focus on core business activities.

Balance’s Flexible Payments with Marketplace OS

Balance addresses the challenges of limited payment methods, and the complexity and overhead costs of offering net terms at scale by providing a frictionless omnichannel payment experience, automated underwriting and credit management, secure vendor payouts, transaction reconciliation and collection. 

Here’s how Balance can improve your marketplace’s payments experience:

• Automated trade credit. Instantly offer payment terms with automated underwriting, providing seamless trade credit for your buyers. Accelerate collections with a buyer portal for invoice visibility, automated reminders, and smart debiting. 

• Multiple payment methods. Making a wide range of payment methods available, whatever your sales channel, provides convenience that eliminates friction and speeds up the purchasing process. On the backend, you can utilize flexible APIs to take control of authorization and capture rules, generate invoices at scale, and track payments from a centralized platform.

• Advanced B2B checkout. With net terms, trade credit, credit cards, ACH, and wire transfers embedded at checkout, you can convert more buyers with a consumer-like payment experience. You can also continue to build trust with your buyers through a fully white-labeled, seamless digital experience.

• Effortless scaling. Streamline multi-vendor transactions and ensure compliance with marketplace requirements. A robust payment infrastructure centralizes data, simplifies workflows, and secures transactions, making it easy to scale your digital marketplace.

Now is the Moment to Thrive Online

By creating a B2C-like payment experience that is seamlessly integrated into ERPs/eProcurement systems, you can make digital marketplaces an effective channel for driving GMV from existing customers and boosting digital revenue. Partnering with the right solution providers with expertise in B2B connected commerce and flexible payments can make a difference. Learn more about TradeCentric and Balance today.