Useful Tips for Selecting the Right B2B E-Marketplaces for SMEs

The number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) is escalating at a rapid rate. They are switching over to B2B e-Marketplace to enter the global trade and capture the overseas markets. Many of the SMEs don't even have the proper knowledge about efficiently using the B2B e-Marketplace. In many cases they just register them as free members on the entire B2B portal sites. They utilize the free services offered to the members and place their product to sell on internet. They use all the B2B sites and repeat the same thing on all. This activity is not only a time consuming process but also will not give any advantage.

Here are some guidelines for SMEs which they can use for selecting the right B2B e-Marketplaces:

1. Benefits from a bi-lingual information display and user interface: It is mostly seen that all international B2B portals provide their services to their users in English language only. B2B portals in China however provide the choice of two languages separately. There is one Chinese site and another one is English site. China site caters only to the services provided for the China market, whereas the English language site serves the other international overseas markets. The information provided on both these sites is different from each other. In this situation the company's profile and their and product's information on both the sites may not match. As such, the products or services can not be simultaneously promoted in both Chinese and International markets together. Therefore it is advisable for SMEs to select B2B sites that provide the bi-lingual information on the same portal at same place (e.g., product specifications). You can visit Karn Fat Crystal Gift to see how they do it.

2. Testing the Maturity of B2B service portal: There are so many B2B portals which you can find on internet world.

To consider the maturity of B2B you should test and look into the following on all B2B portals

i) Product update and the selling lead information: The mature B2B portal should have updated information displayed daily online. You simply check the offer to sell and product catalog part for each site and see if they have latest information now

ii) Find the popularity on discussion forum. If this is a common portal, so many people may discuss on online forms about its page design, impact, what is the best way to get the actual buyers, is it user friendly and so on.

iii) The web contents of the portal: A mature site should be rich in its content , in international as well local trade. It should have the country profile, trading methods the trade forum, etc.

3. Service Charges or The price of B2B service. The B2B service providers should charge a reasonable price for the services provided by them. SMEs are not able to pay the high charges demanded by B2B from them. The SMEs make only 4 to 5% of profit which may require a huge turn over to meet the cost of expensive membership of B2B portals.

As we are hit by a global recession, the export markets are contracting and the profit margins are squeezing. The SMEs have pressing a need to develop the new markets to sustain their operations in this drooping global economy. They require to cut the cost incurred on marketing and sales activities. The service provided by of B2B e-Marketplace is huge. But the services provided to different members are only replica of each other. There is no customized service available to its members. The operational cost of B2B per member should be brought down. They are inflating the cost by non relevant services which are useless for SME. The B2B online services should be inexpensive for most SMEs so that they will be able to afford. Lowering the entry barrier should help B2B to develop their business further.

Although it is difficult for SME to bear the cost of B2B, but they do not have any other option to survive. SO they need to utilize B2B e-Marketplace services wisely.