10 Global B2B Wholesale Marketplace Platforms to grow your Business

While the notion of a business-to-business portal is not new, technology developments have significantly transformed how they work. Additional digital trade capabilities and branding have displaced traditional methods of reaching particular customers or merchants, with B2B wholesale marketplaces and platforms used to source products and establish supplychain relationships.

Listed below are some of the fastest-growing and best global B2B platforms that help thousands of firms worldwide expand and reach their international and local clients.

Globally, the growth of digital technology has transformed the commercial and financial landscapes. Consumers and businesses no longer do business in the same way. There is more rivalry and daily fluctuations in supply and demand.

Market demands have spawned new technology and internet enterprises. A corporation will offer to sell anywhere a buyer is available.

What is a B2B Marketplace?

A B2B marketplace brings many B2B buyers and sellers together on one website to conduct transactions. Because B2B (business-to-business) refers to commerce between businesses, the shopping experience of B2B marketplaces must fulfil businesses’ supply and purchasing needs.

B2B markets can be defined in a variety of ways. They are also known as B2B procurement websites, sourcing portals, purchasing platforms, multi-vendor marketplaces, supply catalogues, and other terms.

B2B marketplaces, like its B2C (business-to-consumer) counterparts, enable merchants to access a larger audience and extend beyond their conventional footprint.

A B2C market, such as Amazon, hosts retailers that sell to end-users, whereas B2B marketplace sellers can be wholesalers, retailers, brands, or manufacturers who sell to other businesses.

Benefits of using a B2B Marketplace

Traders can safely export and import items without making costly trips to other nations. The escrow trade function from Alibaba is one of the joys of digital dealing; with it, commercial businesses no longer have to incur the danger of paying large sums to import or export goods.

Other advantages that business-to-business transactions provide to the organizations engaged include:

• Communication speed and security
• Direct integration of transaction data into the company’s computer systems
• The likelihood of getting additional offers or demands, hence increasing competition
• Depersonalization of the purchase to minimize any favour deals
• Fewer commercial visits, a faster negotiation process, and so on

Top 10 Global Business-to-Business Marketplaces

Here we list some of the best B2B portals to help you grow your business worldwide.

Below, we’ve provided the benefits and drawbacks of each B2B platform to assist you in selecting the best one for your company.

1. Alibaba

Alibaba Group is a Chinese private consortium headquartered in Hangzhou specializing in Internet e-commerce, including business-to-business, retail, and consumer sales platforms. It also provides online payments, a price comparison search engine, and cloud data storage. In 2012, two Alibaba websites handled 1.1 trillion yuan (170 000 million USD) in sales, more than eBay and Amazon.com combined.

The corporation primarily operates in the People’s Republic of China. The Economist magazine estimated in March 2013 that the consortium might be worth between $ 55 billion and $ 120 billion. In March 2014, it had roughly 22,000 employees and approximately US $ 7.5 billion in revenue in 2013.

Alibaba is easily one of the world’s oldest and largest online B2B platforms, with over 35 million members. According to the corporate summary accessible on its website, it is affiliated with ten companies: Alibaba International, Alibaba China, Taobao, Tmall, Juhuasuan, AliExpress, Alimama, Aliyun, Alipay, and China Smart Logistics.

Alibaba has various businesses, but the corporation is most known for three websites: Taobao, China’s most prominent shopping site; Tmall, which is similar to Taobao but offers higher-quality products; and Alibaba.com, which connects Chinese exporters with businesses across the world.

2. DHgate

DHgate is a B2B website that allows international importers to purchase modest Chinese goods at wholesale prices. Electronics, apparel, ornamental items, sports equipment, and other items can be found here.

DHGate sells over 30 million products in 227 countries around the world. It currently has over 5 million customers globally and is one of the top 2100 most frequented pages on the internet.

DHgate provides a global vendor market, just like eBay and Amazon. At least one million small Chinese vendors use the service. DHgate.com keeps a close eye on providers and does not tolerate scams. It is, however, impossible to ensure that each source is legal.

Some DHgate suppliers offer CE, RoHS, and FCC certifications, since some items in the United States and the European Union must adhere to these standards.

While many high-quality products are available on DHgate.com, we advise American and European customers to avoid specific items such as toys, electronics, baby products, autos, cosmetics, and chemicals.

3. Global Sources

Global Sources, also known as GSOL, was one of the first B2B platforms listed on the NASDAQ. The B2B platform is well-known for its high-quality vendors from various industries. Many Chinese manufacturers prefer to pay a substantial fee to become a recognized supplier in this marketplace.

Global Sources, founded in Singapore in 2000, encourages worldwide trade by bringing dealers from all over the world closer together.

Globalsources.com, like Alibaba, is a database of manufacturers and suppliers, primarily in China, to facilitate B2B e-commerce. This platform is linked to the International Trade Fairs founded in Hong Kong.

These fairs feature the most well-known manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. According to Wikipedia, 95 of the world’s top 100 retail chains use this network to communicate with suppliers and manufacturers.

Suppliers and manufacturers have a larger selectivity in the platform’s genesis, development, and actuality. As a Hong Kong Trade Fairs member, most of the registered enterprises have considerable expertise in trading with the West.

This enables these businesses to be founded on durability, functionality, design, customer service, and international trade regulations and principles. In other words, the offerings are more secure in various ways.

4. eWorldTrade

eWorldTrade is a new online B2B site that is rapidly expanding and providing a new and improved way for buyers and sellers to connect. Reckon Media LLC, based in the United States, is the parent company of eWorldTrade. Reckon Media LLC has extensive experience in digital media and technology service provision.

This B2B site’s headquarters are in Dallas, Texas, while its key operations are based in Karachi, Pakistan. While it aims to improve trade links between China and Pakistan, the primary purpose is to assist Chinese suppliers, dealers, and manufacturers in reaching their target audience.

This global B2B online platform is reported to be one of the fastest growing online marketplaces, with thousands of sellers, dealers, suppliers, manufacturers, and vendors joining every day and meeting potential clients from all over the world.

Every day, thousands of manufacturers from various cities and countries register on the website, indicating that this platform would be a solid competitor to all other B2B platforms. Everyone has the opportunity to become a reseller of various products and services through eWorldTrade.com. It has shown to be useful for small enterprises and manufacturers in China who want to expand globally.

5. EC Plaza

EC Plaza, another Korean e-commerce website, has been opened in four languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

ECplaza.net began as a B2B trading portal site in 1996 and has since grown to become the number one online Trade platform, providing online and offline services to over 400,000 users.

This online B2B platform operates a B2B website, trade consulting, EDI service.  It also offers offline trade-related services to SMEs based on export marketing.

We are expanding our business field to the global market by giving considerable value such as new business prospects, cost savings, and convenience, thanks to our worldwide network and great brand awareness.

The website has the largest scope globally and has over 4 million offers listed. Furthermore, our B2B website is at the top of the list of some of the most popular ranking services, including Rankey, Alexa, 100 HOT, and others.

ECPlaza, the world’s leading wholesale B2B marketplace, provides information on wholesalers, importers, exporters, manufacturers, suppliers, and consumers of various items from all over the world.

Suppliers can publicize their goods and services. Buyers may always find information, services, and products from multiple manufacturers, sellers, or global suppliers; this is a top B2B platform for everyone.

6. TradeKey

A large B2B marketplace that connects providers and buyers. It focuses heavily on Asian countries, particularly India, China, Pakistan, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Bangladesh.

This website provides three valuable services to its visitors. The first is the offer to buy; individuals looking for a particular product can reference this and request the thousands of suppliers on this platform, who will contact and offer their services to those interested.

The second section is products, where you may find a wide range of products organized by wholesalers, producers, and factories looking to export their goods. The third category is companies, including a comprehensive list of suppliers, producers, and distributors.

It also allows you to become a reseller for its manufacturers, exporters, distributors, and other small and medium-sized businesses, allowing you to make unlimited commissions. Global Trading is the world’s top and fastest growing (B2B) online business-to-business platform.

It aims to connect small and medium importers, exporters, and businesses across the globe for international trade. With the app, you can now search for new suppliers and connect with new buyers no matter where you are.

TradeKey.com has proven to be a dependable online business platform for global commerce, focusing on wholesale trade, bulk imports and exports.

For years, TradeKey’s unique and effective commercial matching engine and efficient advertising tools have bridged the gap between suppliers and customers, manufacturers and importers from 240 countries worldwide.

7. HKTDC

HKTDC has more than 120,000 high-quality suppliers from Hong Kong, China, and Asia are represented on this platform. It assists you in identifying reliable suppliers by providing referrals from vendors given by third-party organizations such as Dun & Bradstreet and Intertek.

• Miniature Command Zone Small Command Zone – This platform allows you to be more flexible in your search. You may search through thousands of verified vendors and purchase high-quality products in smaller quantities. You can also compare pricing and minimum purchase quantities for fast and direct interaction with suppliers regarding payments and deliveries.

If you cannot find the proper vendor in our Online Marketplace or Small Command Zone, you can post a free purchase alert. Tens of thousands of our high-quality suppliers are standing by to meet your purchasing demands. Meetings for business

• Business Meetings – We organize hundreds of face-to-face business meetings between buyers and pre-selected suppliers at our trade shows throughout the year. These meetings between customer and supplier are a tried and true method of initiating and concluding commercial deals.

• Buyer Incentive Program – Earn points for consulting or publishing buy alerts on HKTDC.com. You can use these points to get certain rewards that will make your everyday search more enjoyable.

8. GlobalSpec

GlobalSpec, a major industry-specific search engine (engineering), is an excellent source for industrial products, specifications, and related services. A website for B2B engineering in the United States.

GlobalSpec is another catalogue that primarily serves the B2B markets in North America and Asia. A significant proportion of the electronic sector stands out. It is a payment catalogue with a sophisticated statistics system that allows the customer to generate a list of possible customers since it detects and debugs visits.

It is a specific directory with the advantage of requiring all users to register before using it. As a result, GlobalSpec.com distinguishes itself from other, more general directories. It also has a big advantage in providing more information about visits.

Business to business is known in the marketing world as a method of dealing directly with companies (“business to business”). It encompasses the commercial operations that the firms do amongst themselves and without relying on the final client. In other words, businesses target other businesses rather than consumers in this form of marketing strategy.

9. Kinnek

Business-to-Business Market Kinnek is open to new possibilities. It works by connecting SMEs with suppliers who offer the things they require at reasonable pricing. Kinnek raised $ 10 million from Matrix Partners and others to grow into new markets and vertical sectors based on its recent expansion.

Kinnek.com works because it is a buyer-driven market rather than a seller-driven one. Rather than having suppliers post all their available products, SMEs input what they want to acquire. The platform connects them with vendors who may be able to help them.

Kinnek uses an algorithm to determine which suppliers are most likely to order the goods and notify them. Suppliers then submit what and how much they cost, and buyers select from that list. It has increased liquidity, but it has also resulted in lower prices for clients.

While new to the field, the company grows at 30-40% every month. Nonetheless, there is a massive supply market for small and medium-sized firms, and we are only touching the surface.

Nowadays, it concentrates mainly on several significant verticals such as bakeries, restaurants, food processing hotels, enterprises, other hospitality-based organizations, and small manufacturers and suppliers worldwide. However, it wishes to expand into other industries and become the one-stop-shop for all small enterprises.

10. Made-in-China

Run by Focus Technology, Made-in-China was launched in 1996 and is now one of the world’s most popular and largest Chinese online B2B portals. The principal aim of Made-In-China.com is to provide easily accessible and better web-based trading solutions to boost Chinese trade worldwide.

Because each keyword only sells the top 10, you may make your product information randomly ranked in the top 10. Of course, this will be dependent on your demands. You can supply different degrees of senior members of the service, but also help your product information to international buyers suggested.

The price is reasonable, the effect is positive, the inquiry mail is targeted, and the Made-in-China inquiry system is a one-on-one delivery mode.

Foreign buyers will see your product information after the inquiry mail is sent to your email address and will not be forwarded to your peers or competitors.

Alternative to Business-to-Business Marketplaces

Amazon Business

Amazon is the largest B2B e-commerce platform, with operations in over 14 countries, including Canada, Brazil, France, the United States, India, Italy, and Mexico.

With a vast workforce of 250K full-time experts, the corporation claims to be the leading entity in the e-commerce industry, offering the most creative solutions. Amazon offers a vast range of products –  from Fire TV, Echo, and Tables to cutting-edge technology stuff.

It has made improvements to its delivery services over the years. Furthermore, it owns the Delivery Service Partner (DSP) Program, which provides 20,000 branded vans to small businesses for pickup and delivery. It is looking for fresh ways to stabilize its B2B business.

It helps brands strengthen themselves to compete with the best. Amazon is undoubtedly the most successful B2B platform, as it is the safest platform with secure payment methods.

B2B Wholesale Marketplaces: Frequently Asked Questions

What types of B2B marketplaces are there?

B2B marketplaces can sell goods, services, or reservations. They are also classified as vertical, horizontal, or global.

Vertical marketplaces often cater to a particular industry, such as completed products, services, or raw materials.

Horizontal marketplaces provide products from a variety of industries. A global market caters to customers worldwide, whereas a local market is limited to a specific geographic area.

Other words are used to describe marketplaces. The term “pure-play marketplace” refers to enterprises that show, sell, and fulfil products online but do not have an offline presence. Supplier-oriented or wholesale marketplaces illustrate scenarios with a small number of suppliers but many buyers.

A buyer-oriented or eProcurement marketplace is the inverse, with many vendors but few buyers. On the other hand, the few buyers are typically giant corporations or government-affiliated clients.

What are the revenue models of B2B marketplaces?

Marketplaces use a variety of monetization models. A marketplace B2B strategy may include one or a combination of monetization methods. The commission-based approach is popular, in which sellers pay the marketplace operator a commission charge for each product.

A membership or subscription-based model often costs the seller a monthly or yearly fee. In contrast, a listing fee model charges the seller for submitting a product to the platform.

What are examples of B2B marketplaces?

Alibaba and Amazon Business are two well-known global B2B marketplaces. On the other hand, the marketplace movement rapidly spreads to new verticals, ecosystems, and locales.

Diplonova, for example, is a French-only service marketplace aimed at small enterprises.

An example of A vertical marketplace is FoodMaven. It is an online food services marketplace geared solely toward the restaurant and hospitality industries.

A horizontal marketplace distributes a particular type of goods or services to various sectors. A well-known B2B distributor, Grainger, launched Zoro, a horizontal marketplace for business supplies, equipment, and tools.

How to choose a B2B marketplace?

To create a successful online B2B marketplace, you must thoroughly research your business niche and market needs. After all, a marketplace will be successful only if it provides genuine value to clients.

Begin with the fundamentals, such as conducting research and surveying your clients. This will assist you in developing the vision and critical differentiators for your market.

Once you’ve selected what you want to achieve, you may look into the various monetization strategies and features you’d like to add to your marketplace.

Following that, you’ll need to learn how to establish a multi-vendor market and an MVP (Minimal Viable Product).

An MVP is a minimalist version of your product designed to gather further input, confirm the need for your marketplace, and iteratively improve it.

The MVP model lets you add more features or pivot your strategy based on your consumers desire before it’s too late. In any case, your B2B marketplace management system must be adaptable enough to help you throughout the process.

B2B marketplace challenges

Nowadays, it is more practical to purchase these products from places where quality and consistency are guaranteed.

So-called e-marketplaces or e-commerce sites of distributors with vast product ranges, thus covering all business needs in this category.

This strategic choice ensures that the proper items are chosen and satisfy users’ needs. Still, it also allows you to go further in indirect sales management by executing optimization projects.

• Technology revolution – The Internet has significantly impacted B2B wholesaling, making it more price competitive and creating a risk for inefficient wholesalers.

Furthermore, manufacturers and merchants anticipate that the internet will reduce the number of intermediaries in the distribution chain.

For B2B wholesalers, failing to take advantage of eCommerce means they risk losing the business that they desire.

• Global competition – Internet exploration accompanies international rivalry, which adds extra downward pressure on prices and disproportionately affects low-margin distributors. However, if wholesalers can grow their business into a new market while keeping expenses under control, they will recover any lost revenues and possibly increase sales and profits overall.

• Retail consolidation – The number of wholesalers providing supermarkets, home electronics, office supplies, and do-it-yourself materials has decreased due to national retailers’ expansion.

Two types of wholesalers will fare well in the changes: those who will continue to grow and serve a diversified client base and specialize in specific markets and thrive in those niches.

• Payment services – Payments not only play an essential part in the consumer experience, but they must also adhere to international legal and financial laws. Compared to B2C marketplaces, the average order amount and purchase frequency in B2B markets might be relatively high.

Other distinguishing elements include the varied payment methods used in each country, pricing differences based on the number of items, and variable payment terms per supplier.

This frequently results in a several-week wait between purchase and payment. Invoicing is also a significant challenge for buyers who wish to receive fewer invoices and quickly process them.

• Supplier maturity – In addition to potential business clients, B2B marketplaces must persuade suppliers to use their online platform and invest in this new sales medium.

Electronic marketplaces still face significant problems in convincing procurement departments. One thing is clear, and it is sure to accelerate industry growth: the digitalization of B2B trade is now in full swing.

The numbers speak for themselves: 74% of B2B purchasers stated they had searched online for at least half of their purchases, with 61% doing so on a mobile phone. However, despite their potency, B2B markets are not always the ideal solution.

This is especially true for indirect purchases, when product guidance and information, both of which purchasers require, are somewhat lacking on these platforms.