There are increasing amount of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) adopting B2B e-Marketplace to run the
global trade. However they just take all. In other words, they just register as free members in all B2B portals and use the free services like posting the product to sell online. They do the same thing on all the portals. It is time costly but the result will not be good. Here are some tips for SME selecting right B2B e-Marketplaces:
1.The bi-lingual information display and user interface
Most overseas B2B portals only provide the English services to their users. In addition, the portals in China separate the Chinese site and English site for servicing China market and overseas market. The information shown on both sites are different in sprite of the languages. If this is the case, the company and product’s information cannot be promoted to the both markets concurrently. So the SME should select B2B sites those can display the bi-lingual information for the same piece of information (e.g. a company or a product). Please see the example of Kam Fat
Crystal Gift.
2.The maturity of B2B portal
There are a number of B2B portals in the internet world. You can test they maturity at the following ways:
a)The update of product and
selling lead information – the mature B2B portal should have up-to-date information display online daily. You just simply check the offer to sell and product catalog part for each B2B site and see how latest information they have now.
b)The popularity on discussion forum – if the B2B portal is common, many people will discuss it on the online forum, such as its site page design, the effects, how easy to get the real buyers and etc.
c)The web contents – a mature B2B site should have rich contents in international or local trade. For example, the trading techniques, the profile of the country, the
trade forum, and etc.
3.The price of B2B service
The B2B service providers should have a reasonable pricing for their services. Some giants charge very expensive for the membership, saying USD 8,800 per year. Imagine if you are a SME, how much business you have successfully made is able to make USD 8,800? It is probably USD200,000, assuming 4 – 5% net profits of total order amount. As we are experiencing the financial tsunami, the export market is getting smaller and the profit margin is becoming lower. The SME is difficult to survive but they still need to develop the new markets. In addition they require cutting the costs for marketing activities. The service of B2B e-Marketplace is massive. In other words, the services to different members are just replicated, not customized. The operational cost per member should be low. The giants push it higher by making many other non-related contents or services to the members. However, those are absolute unhelpful to the members and their business. I stress that the B2B online services should be cheaper and most SME should be able to afford it. It is healthy to the B2B portal business development if the entry barrier is low.
