With increase in internet consumption and wide reach and connectivity, there is a rapid up-spring in the emergence of online businesses and e-commerce websites. We have seen e-tailers like eBay, Amazon, Alibaba grow their foot out of their respective countries and spread all over the globe. Such businesses are called online marketplaces, where a consumer uses the e-tailer platform to connect with the best sellers. Seeing the opportunity, few have also jumped into online marketplaces for businesses rather than individual consumers. With the rise in such platforms, businesses as well as consumers have witnessed increase in their bargaining power as potential buyers, since they have so many options to choose from. There are still some reluctance in few big and small organizations adopting these models, because they’re either scared of online transactions or are too reluctant to change the existing way of doing business.
Although hesitation to change is perfectly normal, here are 6 important reasons why your business will function way better with an online marketplace.
- Convenience
The most important and most visible benefit the online marketplace can provide is the convenience of doing business. Everything you need, whether a product or a service, you can get it sitting at your office with just a click. This reduces the hassle of going out to find the best business partners, following up with them for their quotations as well as negotiating the best prices. You can just compare prices of different prices from different sites. This way, it reduces the costs significantly.
- Accountability
When something goes wrong, you need to find the root of the problem and pin point the responsibility, so that corrective measures are taken in time to evade from deviations. Few medium and small business partners might or might not take the responsibility and provide you with right answers. With an online marketplace working as a mediator, the middle men takes on the accountability and responsibility and offers corrective measures. Hence you can save your business from any crisis that might occur.
- Multiple Options
Online marketplace lists a wide arena of vendors suitable for your businesses. They are a blend of product quality, best price, lowest shipping charges, timely deliveries and standardized certifications. You can choose a partner with the dimension you prefer is best for your business. Your bargaining power also increases as this becomes a buyer based model.
- Risk Diversification
They say don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Using an online marketplace, you can diversify your risk by choosing different partners for your different needs. You can partner with as many business vendors as you want to suit your customized needs. This way, even if one partners turns out faulty, your business operations won’t ever face a shutdown, as would always have an alternative product solutions from a different vendors.
- Best Quotations
As discussed earlier, with multiple options the bargaining power of a buyer increases significantly. With so many business vendors offering their services at one place, you can scrutinize them and choose the one that provides the best quotations and value additions.
- Focus on core competencies
Running and sustaining a business is tough. There are literally thousands of responsibilities of a business ranging from hiring the right staff, buying the best software solutions to post-sales services. One might not be able to focus on their core competencies while figuring out the other responsibilities. Hence it is best to choose an online marketplace and hire them to find us the best vendors suitable for our objectives. This way, we have ample of time to focus on our core competencies, while the online marketplace takes care of the rest.
Moreover, there is also a rise in all in one service providers for consumers as well as for businesses. These businesses provide all the solutions at one place like Yellow Pages or Just Dial. These models make a lot of sense, as it eliminates the need to open a different tab in your browser for a different service and contact another marketplace and explain them your needs all over again.
Why go to a different place to hire an interior designer and a different place to get auditing and accounting services, when you can get them all at www.askme.ae ?
AskMe Blog 