Excel Your Business - Use B2B Portals

What Are Online Business-to-Business (B2B) Portals?

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Business-to-Business (B2B) is a term that describes business transactions done between two businesses e.g. transaction involving manufacturer of mobile phones and wholesaler of mobile phones.

Business-to-Business (B2B) is different from Business-to-Consumers (B2C) as B2C involves a business entity and end consumer.

You might have heard of websites like www.ebay.com and www.amazon.com, these websites are used for B2C transactions.

Business-to-Business online portals allow business transactions between businesses. They give sellers opportunity to promote their products, give trade offers and contact buyers against their buying requirements. Buyers can search for products, post their buying requirements and contact sellers. Some famous and widely used B2B portals are www.alibaba.com, www.tradekey.com, www.made-in-china.com, www.globalsources.com etc.

Sections of Business-to-Business Portal

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A Business-to-Business website normally has 4 different sections, namely:

1) Products
2) Sell Offers/Selling Leads
3) Buy Offers/Buying Requirements
4) Company Profiles

1) Products
In this section, products of different sellers/suppliers are listed according to their category. Buyers come to this section and perform their search to buy their required product.

2) Sell Offers/Selling Leads
In this section, suppliers give special selling offers related to their product(s) to attract buyers.

3) Buy Offers/Buying Requirements
This is a section where buyers come and post their buying needs, so that relevant suppliers can contact them.

4) Company Profiles
This is a place where the profiles of different companies involved in selling or manufacturing are listed. Buyer can review company profile before closing a deal with a seller for his satisfaction.

A part from these 4 sections, B2B websites have some other features like trade shows, shipping information, verified/unverified suppliers, super deals etc.

List of Some B2B Websites

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Tradekey
Alibaba
Global Sources
Made-In-China
EC Europe
ETO Commerce
EC Plaza
EC Robot
World Bid
EC21
Foreign-Trade
Busy Trade
Trade-India
Trade Prince
Free Trade Front
Trade Lead
Euro Trade Leads
Asia Trade

Tips For Sellers - What Should Sellers Do?

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Sellers, suppliers or manufacturers should:

- Register on multiple B2B websites (use free membership initially)
- Post their company profile
- Post Products
- Post Sell offers/Selling leads
- Send Quotations to Relevant Buyers
- Set Trade Alert

They should post as many products and selling offers as possible. This would give them exposure on the website and increase chance of getting contacted by buyers.
Sellers should find relevant buyers in the buy offer/buying leads section and send them quotations. Quotations should include product details, price, minimum order, availability of sample, method of payment, port of shipment, production capacity etc.

Sellers should also use the feature of "Trade Alerts" provided by some business-to-business portals. Using this feature enables sellers to receive alerts when buyers post buying requirements of the product sellers have set trade alert for.

B2B websites usually give limited number of slots for posting products and offers to free members and these websites give higher exposure to paid members. So, I would suggest sellers to register with a free membership, understand the functionality and features of the website, analyze if there are enough buyers of the products that they are offering and then upgrade their membership (paid membership). Upgrading to paid membership will not only give them exposure, but it will also create trust for them in the minds of buyers.

Want more information or have any question in mind?? Post comment.

Tips For Buyers - What Should Buyers Do?

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Buyers should register on B2B websites (some b2b portals give access without registration), post their buying needs (buy offers/buying leads) and search products and/or sell offers section. If they find required product, they should send inquiry to the seller.

Buyers can also set trade alerts i.e. when their required product is posted by a seller, an alert is sent to them (mostly in the form of email).

There are a lot of sellers who are involved in fraud, so buyers should be very careful while doing any kind of business transactions with sellers/suppliers. Some business-to-business websites provide features such as verified suppliers, audit reports of suppliers, trust points etc for buyers' satisfaction and facilitation. However, these things do not give 100% guarantee. So, buyers should review company profile of sellers, call them to confirm their location, compare their prices, ask for legal documents and take any measure that they can to make their transactions secure.