The difference between traditional e-commerce and e-commerce is that the traditional trade model has been moved up, and the order rate has not changed the business model, such as various industrial supply chain platforms; The latter is to change the business model of traditional trade, and its core is to change the marketing model, delivery model and trust system.
Alibaba SEO Wu Jiayang analyzed three typical B2B e-commerce platforms. The first category is information-oriented B2B e-commerce, typically represented by China manufacturers, the second category is social-oriented B2B e-commerce like Linkedin, and the third category is ecological-oriented B2B e-commerce, typically represented by Amazon Supply. According to his observation of Linkedin and AmazonSupply, he also put forward a conjecture that B2B has been broken, that is, it is necessary to strengthen control in the establishment of interpersonal relationships, purchase, payment, logistics, customer feedback and other links. Therefore, he put forward three possible directions for B2B development, one is the O2O exhibition mode combining offline and online marketing, the other is the online mode integrating platform and enterprise ERP, and the third is the B2B retail mode of high-profit products.
Generally speaking, everyone has the same opinion. At present, B2B platform has not met the requirements of 2B enterprises. Why? Or from the B2B transaction value chain to analyze. From the perspective of traditional B-end enterprises, this paper discusses what kind of services 2B enterprises need, and then looks at where the B2B platform should start and really cut into B2B business.
The first step of the transaction is information sharing and trust building, and 2B has different attraction from platform operators.
Requirements of buyer b:
I hope to see the most suitable supplier information (short list of high-quality suppliers) and establish initial contact and communication with customers through the platform. I may also need to learn about the seller's products and services through offline technical communication with the seller, or get the recommendation of peers and professionals in the industry through social platforms, and initially screen out the preferred supplier list. From the perspective of buyer-supplier relationship management, this is a process of supplier technology selection and business evaluation. If there are buyers and sellers who have done transactions, this process is a part of routine evaluation of previous transactions, such as delivery, service and credit.
Requirements of seller b:
I hope to show my strength through the platform, so that buyers can see their information or push marketing advertisements to reach the target customers (customers with professional counterparts), and attract new customers to establish online or offline communication with sellers, and get in touch with buyers who are really interested through offline exhibitions, visits, etc., such as sending samples and entering the preferred list of buyers and suppliers. From the seller's customer relationship management, this is the evolution process from sales leads to sales opportunities (customer relationship management). If both the buyer and the seller make a transaction, this process is the link for the seller to manage the repeated purchase opportunities and credit.
Value given to 2B by the platform supplier:
Provide information matching to help buyers choose suppliers (qualification evaluation, professional certification, peer evaluation, other buyer evaluation, financial credit evaluation, credit guarantee, etc.). ), guide buyers, recommend suitable products and services, and recommend quality customers (credit evaluation, credit guarantee, purchasing power evaluation, etc.). ) To the seller, to the buyer to provide supplier screening process and data services, to the seller to provide customer leads and opportunities management process and data services, to provide trading services and payment to the buyer and the seller.
In this information and trust link, if there is an e-commerce platform to make a fuss about the pain points of buyers and sellers, there may be some professional B2B models. For example, the credit guarantee plan recently launched by Alibaba is aimed at the credit system of domestic small and medium-sized sellers, and the guarantee system of "You dare to use it and I dare to pay for it" for overseas sellers, catering to sellers' credit concerns about buyers. For another example, the supplier of Sinopec Great Wall e-commerce platform has been demonstrated by several major purchasing centers of Sinopec. In Nanjing, there are more than 65,438+00 purchasing experts with decades of industry experience. Their recognition of suppliers and products reduces the cost for buyers to identify suppliers.
The e-commerce platform for information exchange and trust building has the following suggestions:
1. The information provided by the information platform to buyers and sellers should be targeted. Sellers should see customers with real needs and good payment records, and buyers should see high-quality suppliers, not the cheaper the better. A good information platform should reduce the time cost of buyers and sellers through this accurate information service.
2. The information platform is too big for professional B buyers. Vertical and refined industry information platforms should also have a development market.
3. Social platforms may become circle of influence for professionals, and social platforms will establish contacts.
4. The possible development direction of social platform and the integration with customer relationship management system. Social tools such as WeChat are suitable for work collaboration and should have good development prospects.
5. The trust platform shall provide professional services such as trust-based assessment, qualification identification, technical review and mutual evaluation of delivery. What is needed here is not only online big data, but also the intervention of offline industry experts and market research.
6. According to the supplier management needs of buyers, some platforms are responsible for process outsourcing, helping sellers manage lightweight supplier screening and decision-making processes, or docking with the SRM system of buyers. For the seller's customer relationship needs, there may be some platforms to help customers manage sales leads and opportunities, and have an interface with the seller's CRM system.
7. In view of the large amount of data exchange between the above-mentioned different platforms and ERP, CRM, SRM and other systems of trading enterprises, there may be a data exchange service platform to regulate the exchange of these data, which is responsible for delivering all kinds of information in time like a post office.
Therefore, in the first step of the transaction, a variety of B2B platforms may evolve in the future, with one or more of the above functions to meet the needs of buyers and sellers to share information and build trust.
It is impossible to get all the platforms in the world, which is the biggest difference between B2B and B2C. It needs the cooperation of many professionals, instead of Internet companies simply dealing with B like C. It is not so terrible for B2C to lose a customer, and the B2C platform can take care of most of it. B2B losing a customer can be fatal, so we should take care of every customer's needs. This is the most fundamental reason why people complain about the hardships of B2B e-commerce.
But in the value chain, whoever catches a pain point of buyers and sellers, meets the needs of some majors and improves efficiency will win a world.
The essence of e-commerce is still business. Trading is the most important thing in business. E-commerce can help enterprises reduce transaction costs and improve transaction efficiency and satisfaction.
Traditional enterprises are also anxious, shouting the slogan of transforming into e-commerce. The first step is to invite professors and network marketing experts from well-known universities to come to the enterprise for training. But in practice, I don't know how to apply it to B2B field. The second step is to invite foreign aid to do it. E-commerce talents are very hot now, but the price is not low at a young age. The hired internet talents don't understand the operation of the enterprise, and eventually they can't integrate into the enterprise, which doesn't match at all. Communicating with people inside the enterprise is a dialogue between people in two worlds.
There are several large-scale industry elite enterprises that realized earlier. Confused at first, they followed suit and invested a lot of money and energy to build a B2C business website. Finally, they found that the effect was not satisfactory, and they went back to build a B2B website for the original distributor, and found that as long as the business efficiency was slightly improved, the satisfaction of the original distributor could be achieved.
It needs to be based on the different demands of B2B, financial, platform and logistics parties in e-commerce links.
The seller B looks at the transaction link like this. When the sales opportunity becomes an order, the steps are as follows: quote to buyer B according to the inventory and market conditions, negotiate and sign, the customer places a purchase order, the seller confirms the sales order, collects the deposit or collects the money in advance, checks the buyer's credit limit, informs buyer B of the delivery date, makes an outward delivery order, arranges logistics or provides the delivery date required by the buyer, and arranges logistics in the factory or reservoir area. The third party shall measure and sample the bulk liquid for future reference, and track the logistics from the factory to the warehouse of the other party. If the other party needs to arrange warehousing or installation services, it also needs to arrange logistics door-to-door service, and some bulk goods may need to be measured or sampled for future reference, the balance payment settlement and after-sales technical services.
In such a complicated link, seller B's demand for e-commerce is very diverse, involving many parties:
1. Seller B's requirements for the platform will be more complicated. Seller B hopes that the platform can provide an auction mode to make the price setting transparent, instead of the traditional one-to-one bargaining sales method, and obtain the maximum benefit; There are also some products for different industries and customers. Seller b has a price difference policy, which is also diverse. Some enterprises implement a quantity-based price policy for certain products. The ladder price can be reduced by percentage or based on the absolute quantity of the order. Some enterprises also have rebate policies, and discounts are reflected in placing orders. Therefore, many sellers B have started to build their own B2B platforms and customize them as needed.
2. Seller B needs to carry out risk control management on the business links in the sales process. This means that seller B has many departments and personnel involved in the sales process. For example, there will be multiple levels of special approval. If the e-commerce platform can best provide this kind of business process service (for the sellers' sales leaders, they especially want to see that the e-commerce platform can help them improve their price management), if not, the price approval system within the enterprise may be linked to the quotation link of the e-commerce platform, otherwise it may be two skins, causing management loopholes.
3. The seller's sales department hopes to directly see the customer's credit status in ERP on the e-commerce platform and transmit it to the e-commerce front desk so as to confirm the order online. After the online order is formed, it can directly enter the seller's enterprise ERP.
4. The seller hopes that the financial participants on the e-commerce platform can not only provide a mature online payment system and low handling fees, but also provide the buyer with fast online financing based on transactions and can quickly withdraw the payment.
5. The seller is also worried about the disputes of quantity and quality in the delivery process, and needs the intervention of a third-party intermediary in measurement and sample sampling. B2B is afraid of all kinds of business risks. If it loses a game, the brand or word of mouth may be completely gone.
6. If it is a large-scale manufacturing enterprise, the seller can provide the buyer with manufacturing supervision services similar to Xiaomi's "Love Space", and the buyer can monitor the manufacturing process of its customized equipment without going to the site.
7. In the after-sales service, the seller B hopes to quickly obtain customer needs, share on-site information, respond quickly and provide accurate services through some mobile solution.
8. The seller can classify the buyers according to the order execution and payment, so as to prepare for the next round of marketing and pricing management.
Buyer b looks at the transaction link like this. After completing the technical exchange and preliminary business intention, and determining the short list of suppliers, the steps of the transaction link are: price comparison, negotiation, contract (buyer's internal purchase approval), placing purchase orders according to inventory and production requirements, paying down payment or cash, obtaining the seller's delivery information, picking up goods, receiving goods, measuring, testing, entering, final settlement, collecting the usage of using departments, evaluating suppliers, etc.
Buyer b's requirements may include:
1. From the management point of view, buyers hope that the inquiry and price comparison process can be traced back online. For example, it is best to provide a multi-level approval process to ensure the transparency of the procurement decision-making process.
2. After placing an order, the buyer can quickly obtain the seller's advance delivery date information online.
3. Buyers can quickly obtain online financing from financial parties in case of shortage of funds, especially flexible financing with short-term interest calculated on a daily basis.
4. The buyer can authorize the logistics party to pick up the bill of lading online, and the third-party logistics party can help the buyer to pick up the goods.
5. Buyers want to see the tracking information of logistics such as B2C.
6. The business department of the buyer wants to conduct online reconciliation of business and funds at the time of settlement.
7. Buyers can submit service applications on the platform through Internet technologies such as mobile phones and get online or offline service support.
8. The buyer hopes that according to the delivery of the order and the quality of use afterwards, the user department will conduct technical evaluation and the supplier department will conduct commercial evaluation to improve the supplier evaluation system.
There are two basic demands of financial parties: loans can make money and effectively control lending risks.
1. The microfinance department of the financial party obtains the real transaction information of the buyer and the seller, and provides financing based on the real information.
2. For buyers who need additional risk control due to insufficient online transaction information, financial institutions can conduct offline qualification review, offline credit granting and online use.
3. Financial parties want to deposit funds with transaction funds, similar to Alipay.
B2B bulk logistics has not yet formed a national industry giant, and it is very regional. Its price competition also makes the logistics service not meet the business requirements of buying and selling 2B. Excessive competition in this industry and low quality of transportation services are common, and the logistics with high quality and good price in the last mile is still a problem.
In the era of e-commerce, the logistics side also has new demands:
1, logistics can grab orders like taxi software.
2. The logistics party accepts the buyer's delivery authorization on the platform without the previous paper authorization.
3. The logistics party can split the large bill according to the capacity of its own vehicle, form the seller's outward invoice, and deliver it to the driver.
4, the driver can know the delivery time in advance through the mobile phone query, arrange the time reasonably, and reduce the waiting time at the factory.
5. After arriving at the Seller's factory and the reservoir area, queue up in the warehouse to pick up the goods quickly, so as to reduce the time for drivers to get on and off at the Seller's departments to go through the formalities.
6. Buyers and sellers can obtain vehicle dynamics such as GPS during transportation.
7. It can control the on-site situation of the delivery point in real time, which is convenient for tracing disputes in the future.
1. It is hoped that both parties will form a closed trading loop on the platform and accumulate real trading data.
2. Try to find the * * * link in the transaction process and solidify it online.
3. Buyers and sellers can be allowed to configure their own individual needs, such as department structure, personnel roles and authority,
4. For special personalized requirements, open interfaces are reserved to allow data exchange between internal systems and platforms of buyers and sellers.
Strictly speaking, e-commerce is more like the informatization process of enterprise B. There are different opinions on whether it is e-commerce or not, and at least two obvious effects can be seen: First, the procurement or sales process is more transparent and sunny, which reduces the greasy; The second is to improve customer satisfaction and cooperation efficiency between enterprise departments. It can be said that e-commerce has promoted the transformation of enterprise management from the outside to the inside, with great influence.
I tend to adopt the definition of e-commerce in the World Trade Organization (WTO). WTO believes that e-commerce is the production, sale, transaction and delivery of goods and services through electronic means. Therefore, e-commerce also belongs to the broad category of e-commerce. It is also more in line with everyone's popular understanding of e-commerce.
Of course, e-commerce itself will not innovate the business model at first, but only transform the offline working mode to online through information technology. But without this step, there is no basis for exploring new modes of e-commerce. Therefore, the author has always stressed that this is the basic project that any traditional enterprise must do to transform e-commerce.
1. Due to the complexity of the transaction link, the management characteristics of the enterprise itself are part of the competitiveness of the enterprise, so most seller enterprises may adopt self-built e-commerce platforms, and leading enterprises in the world are also building their own B2B platforms, like BASF. Another example is Japanese yanmer in manufacturing industry, which tries to widen the gap with its competitors by building its own B2B platform. The business objectives of this kind of enterprise-level B2B second-party platform are mainly to improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, and some customized functions are set to distinguish competitors. Judging from the data that enterprises want to retain customers, the future will be the mainstream of B2B e-commerce. When building this enterprise-level B2B platform, we must be forward-looking and take into account the openness of the second-party platform. The future innovation may be that some processes run on enterprise-level platforms, and some business links jump to external three-party platforms for circulation, such as financing, order information exchange and logistics information, and finally return to internal ERP.
2. Super-large buyer enterprises may also build a second-party supply chain procurement platform to manage the selection, ordering and delivery of suppliers. In particular, highly specialized material procurement is customized on its own platform. For general procurement, more and more enterprises will go to third-party platforms, which will depend on the development of data exchange platforms between enterprises.
3. In reality, a large, comprehensive and all-inclusive e-commerce platform may not appear again. The traditional B2B world is a world of elite cooperation, all walks of life have their own specialties, and cooperation is needed to complete a complete transaction chain. The elites of different majors will re-examine their own advantages, divest the businesses that Internet technology can replace, and continue to play their core values. For seller enterprises, they always want to increase direct sales. In the past, it was possible to break this traditional model by relying on dealers and e-commerce. The buyer's enterprise sells it directly to the next home. So how do traditional dealers do it? The existence of dealers usually has two functions: one is to have distribution network, warehousing and other resources, and even some local business licenses, which can be extended, but mainly to help sellers reach the final buyer's warehousing and logistics services; Secondly, sellers are often inseparable from dealers, for example, dealers can sell on credit and sellers can pay back the money in time. This part may be replaced by online financial enterprises in the Internet age, such as Ant Financial. In the future, transaction-based bank credit products may be more competitive in scale and will replace the credit sales function of dealers, and dealers may have to withdraw from this stage. The traditional B2B linear model is shown in the following figure.
4. Most third-party platforms in the market only provide relatively simple product and price management functions. In order to attract sellers to move traditional offline business online, it is necessary to carry out large-scale transformation to adapt to the diversified marketing strategies of enterprises and put forward demand according to these strategies. This is also the main field that B2B tripartite platform needs to break through, and it is also one of the difficulties. Every enterprise chooses to build its own second-party platform because there is no third-party platform that can flexibly customize the process and business links. B2B, which we often see, is basically a platform with no difference in commodity prices.
5. At present, most third-party e-commerce platforms lack the concept of organization. This is also a place that B2B or technicians pay little attention to. B2B completes a transaction, involving multiple departments and positions of buyers and sellers, cooperating with each other, and sometimes even containing each other. For example, a purchasing enterprise may have multiple purchasing departments and category managers, a multi-level authorization negotiation mechanism, and even different budget item codes. When receiving goods, there are purchasing execution, storage and transportation departments and so on. Sales enterprises can be divided into product departments and regions. Product shelving and price management belong to different departments, and the internal support is a group of people, and then to warehousing and logistics. There are different roles in this chain. A successful third-party e-commerce platform must face this challenge, find out its own uniqueness, and provide flexible organization, role and authority allocation to meet the rules of B2B transactions. Whoever wants to skip this step can't really enter the B2B transaction.
6. Due to the complexity of B2B business, there may be some professional process online outsourcing services. For example, when document business processing is moved to the Internet, online outsourcing may occur, regardless of the workplace. Maybe some platforms specialize in this kind of service and can do it across industries.
7. With the development of B2B business, some cloud service providers will be responsible for the collection and transmission of logistics information. In particular, the dangerous goods transportation industry has access threshold, which may form some industrial logistics information platforms. There are no big enterprises in China's industrial transportation industry. With the development of e-commerce, it may in turn promote the reshuffle of this industry, just like the integrated development of B2C logistics industry before.
8. The development of new financial products will be an important battlefield for banks and financial institutions. Traditional banks like to turn around super-large seller enterprises or commercial enterprises, lending billions at a time, which is worry-free and convenient, equivalent to wholesale; For the small customers of buyers, SMEs can't get loans because of the high cost of credit information, which is too small and annoying in the e-commerce era. More sellers want to sell directly to small and micro customers. As an important participant in the transaction, banks need to change immediately and put new product loans into new channels. Ant Financial has begun to eat into the personal business of banks on personal credit, and they will definitely not let go of such a big cake as B2B. I sincerely hope that traditional big banks can have superior risk control ability in B2B business. At this moment, traditional banks must boldly innovate, take advantage of the resources of traditional offline customers, develop pure online fast loan products based on transactions as soon as possible, and defend the main battlefield of traditional corporate business of banks.
9. With the innovation of the above-mentioned e-commerce business, more and more players and enterprise information systems will be born, and the data exchange between them will give birth to a new business. For example, the online business of the enterprise information post office has been reported abroad: for example, hubwoo, whose slogan is "Connect the enterprise", which means "Connect your enterprise". B2B industry websites are rarely seen abroad, mainly because of the high degree of enterprise informatization. After years of operation, the cooperative relationship between buyers and sellers is mostly stable, and the supply of goods is often not the core issue of buyers. They need to solve the data exchange between ERP, which makes the transaction process more efficient, so Hubwoo.com came into being. China will definitely have such demand in the future, although it is not a hot spot today.