Building out a marketplace takes more than just technology. Making sure that you have the suppliers and SKUs to populate the marketplace is just as important. Choosing a marketplace solution that has supplier recruiting and onboarding built into the technology is a major differentiator for your marketplace. Areas to consider include:
Supplier Recruitment: Recruiting suppliers is critical to the success of your marketplace. A successful marketplace is built on a large product catalog, so you need a large supply of sellers to thrive. This can be difficult, but it is a vital component. These sellers bring the breadth and depth of products to your marketplace. Making sure you can identify the right suppliers, reach them with compelling reasons to join the marketplace, and get them to submit their application is key. Building recruitment into the marketplace technology provides for easier management of potential suppliers, and keeps them engaged and moving towards marketplace approval and onboarding.
Onboarding: Once you have suppliers applying and approved, you need to consider how to onboard those suppliers in the most efficient and effective way possible. Lengthy and complex onboarding processes are one of areas where marketplaces can struggle. Building key onboarding features and functionality into the marketplace technology allows for easy self-service of key onboarding processes like product and offer onboarding, shipping calculation and configuration, submitting and storing required documentation, and managing shipping from delivery locations.
Marketplace technologies should be designed with user experience in mind, as well as with the B2B functionality necessary for running a successful marketplace. The ease of use and relevant settings allow both client and seller to quickly and easily configure their portals.
Supplier Management: Just like managing your traditional e-commerce suppliers, you will need to manage your approved marketplace suppliers. Marketplace technologies need to provide a comprehensive capability to manage individual suppliers and their SKUs. Look for marketplace technologies that are built with enhanced reporting and alerts that allow you more visibility into seller performance. These reports will help you keep your sellers on track and empower you to plan for the future.
Expanded Commissions: Distributors want the ability to manage expanded commissions that allow for uniformity and flexibility. Commission models like absolute, flex, and category should be options in any B2B marketplace technology.