Over the past decades, Business-to-business buying has been changing with the transformation of consumer behavior and digital platforms are the greatest disruptor. There is a fundamental transformation in the consumer model where mobile app and online platforms are fueling the latest development. Moreover, online b2b marketplaces have become the center of commerce and expecting a further surge in the near future. As the technology platforms overtaking, the dependency of business buying on online platforms is becoming inevitable.
According to Forrester report, the entire b2b e-commerce is expected to hit US$1.8 trillion revenue by 2023. As the global e-commerce industry emerging, the dependency of the textile and apparel industry will also surplus the sales of b2c business models.
B2B refers to Business-to-business.
I am sure you have prior knowledge about the concept of B2B which is the abbreviation of business-2-business. It simply implies that companies providing services or products to other business initiatives instead of directly dealing with consumers are called B2B companies. Similarly, B2B eCommerce platform is an online business model providing services to businesses for sourcing. According to Investopedia, b2b eCommerce is, “a type of commerce transaction that exists between businesses, such as those involving a manufacturer and wholesaler, or a wholesaler and a retailer.” (Source: Investopedia)
The connection between textile industry and B2B-eCommerce is long gone and with the transformation of the global market, textile and apparel industry has been vastly integrated to eCommerce platforms. Presently, more than 68% of companies from textile and apparel industry are making their deals through online platforms. On Alibaba, the pioneer of all b2b marketplaces, hundreds of thousands of transactions are happening every day. Currently, several dedicated b2b marketplaces for textile and apparel industry are contributing to the emerging market.
Needless to say, online b2b marketplace is a necessity for textile and apparel industry in today’s world. With the growing need for textile materials, manufacturers race to source better quality products at lower prices. Besides, quick sourcing is considered to be one of the best solutions for the ongoing market trend.
According to Pelissie du Rauses, almost $8 trillion is exchanged through e-commerce and two-third of the companies are maintaining some kind of web presence. Besides, one-third of the small and medium-sized companies are extensively using e-commerce platforms along with other web technologies for business. In a sense, the concept of B2B business model is critical and in nature, B2C and B2B are quite different yet the amount of transaction is almost equal.
Business models of e-commerce contain fewer buyers than consumer models. But when it comes to the size of transactions, the importance of b2b e-commerce is understood. GoSourcing365 is one of those biggest global b2b online platforms dedicated to the textile and apparel industry for networking and sourcing. In the last couple of months, it has seen a huge surge in registration of apparel manufacturers. Besides, buyer’s engagement in the platform has skyrocketed as well.
Back in 1999, McGuffog and Wadsley expressed the possibility of the development of e-commerce industry saying that ‘e-commerce will soon revolutionize the way of business to business relationship’. Today, almost half the bulk sourcing is happening through b2b e-commerce in the textile industry.
The entire business sector depends on how clients conduct business deals and since clients are becoming dependent on online purchasing, the transformation of textile manufacturing industry was inevitable. The adaptation of B2B marketplace in the textile and apparel industry has been growing since the beginning, as a result, more than 68% of the total b2b deals happen through online platforms now.
According to iBe TSD Ltd. B2B marketplace will reach a new height by 2024 with an estimated US$3.6 trillion while sales through b2b marketplace were only US$680 billion in 2018. In terms of sales value, B2B marketplaces are growing faster than B2C. By 2024, b2c marketplace sales is expecting to reach US$3.5 trillion which marked comparatively higher than b2b with US$1.1 trillion in 2018. Therefore, there is a direct indication of better and higher market growth B2B model in the coming years.
Since 68% of buyers and manufacturers are conducting business deals online from the textile and apparel industry, a large portion of the B2B marketplace is covered by the textile industry. According to Market Research, more than half a trillion-dollar, textile and apparel business deals happen through online b2b marketplaces and by 2025 it may reach US$1.4 trillion.
With the growth of the fashion market, the textile manufacturing industry is also aggressively growing. As experts predicting, B2B marketplace is going to take over the entire industries and textile & apparel will be the first to become fully integrated. There are several b2b platforms built only for the textile and apparel industry and GoSourcing365 is one of the largest platforms serving the global textile and apparel manufacturers, suppliers and buyers dedicatedly.
In brief, b2b online marketplace is a huge initiative in the existing market. Textile and apparel manufacturing, being one of the largest industries, is going to be fully integrated with the online platforms. By 2024, the online b2b marketplace is going to reach US$3.6 trillion in sales. Therefore, the future of the b2b marketplace is going to boom soon.
