The audience at the Digital Success Summit V3.0 was in for a treat, as Naman Shah, the CEO at NowPurchase, talked about secrets behind developing successful B2B (business-to-business) marketplaces.
He returned around five years earlier to India and began his journey towards developing his company.
A Basic Look At Marketplaces And B2B
A B2B marketplace is any type of service where business may purchase/sell goods/services with the help of technology in a more transparent/easier way.
It is also possible that a business may not require an app/website to purchase goods or services. Technology is required for helping them make these vital purchases.
B2B is not B2C- Strategies and other blueprints will be radically different, especially where smaller and bigger entities operate differently despite producing similar products.
The business has to be defined specifically in terms of the industry segment and the scale while beginning any B2B business/marketplace.
One should always consider things that add value and the role played by technology. However, the latter should not be a force-fit even though digital transformation is inevitable.
Technology should help grow margins, speed, or build a major differentiator in order for it to be viable. It should do at least one or more of these things.
Businesses have numerous stakeholders. There are persons raising enquiries, paying for the product, decision-makers, and actual users. Hence, B2B marketplaces should understand the decision-maker, user, and the one who is going to pay, along with the application of what they are purchasing for any specific business/customer segment.
Naman Shah also talked of how NowPurchase began as a B2B marketplace which was greatly successful, although they ultimately realized how people were purchasing goods but they were not generating ample value.
Another dimension was added and the company started selling to the retailer category and attempted to know the actual sweet spot in terms of value.
It eventually focused only on casting producers as its customer segment. NowPurchase went for a value-driven approach, while refining their segments and built SOPs on factory management and other topics as part of its content engine, along with printers and posters on how to keep workplaces safe during COVID-19.
The current platform (procurement based) could only launch after the pandemic.
Vital Pointers According To Naman Shah
He drew on his experience at NowPurchase, talking about using technology to build a successful B2B marketplace.
Technology can help simplify buyer access- WhatsApp bots, price discovery, delivery tracking, etc. may be potent tools.
Seller segment may gain greater value through technologies such as customized WhatsApp bots.
SaaS layers for manufacturing clients helped reduce costs of production.
The website or app should not be the first step, since it is time-consuming and expensive.
First go for interactions offline, understand the applications, and then build the digital use cases accordingly.
No market in India is small and creating value for customers will make each vertical a billion-dollar opportunity.
Do not focus overly on customer acquisitions or users acquired. NowPurchase, for instance, has an internal tracker called SOPW (share of procurement wallet).
He also outlined a personal philosophy which is to avoid over-analyzing, while talking about how the right attitude always matters. Luck only comes to people who try enough and persevere according to Naman Shah.
The ultimate mantra according to Naman Shah is that B2B is a space where one should go as deep as possible, without going wide.
Full coverage of the session Secrets of building a successful B2B marketplace by Naman Shah at Digital Success Summit 2022
