Differences Between B2C and B2B Procurement Platforms

1. B2C Interfaces Designed for Shopping, Not Sourcing

Consumers follow emotional impulses to purchase a fun t-shirt or a cool gadget. If they can’t find what they want, no big deal. They have time and will find what they want elsewhere.

Enterprises don’t “shop”, because what they’re after isn’t optional. Procurement managers are under a great deal of pressure to find what’s needed, and find it quickly and accurately. They also have to be careful about who they do business with for compliance reasons.

Consumer platform user interfaces are designed with impulse purchases in mind. Distracting upsell and cross-sell promotions, search results with very wide parameters, and other extra features create a cluttered experience for the B2B buyer.

This is why consumer-oriented platforms have not been adopted by enterprises for their B2B work (many enterprises use popular commerce sites to shed things to consumers; but again, not to other businesses).

2. Enterprises Buy in Bulk, Consumers Buy One at a Time

Businesses buy in large quantities. While recent market volatility has made inventories smaller than in past years, purchasing is still a matter of volume. Most consumer platforms just aren’t set up to sell in large quantities, and have frustratingly low inventory levels.

Buying in bulk also comes with varying pricing levels too – thus, negotiations are a part of the process employed by B2B sellers when selling and evaluating purchasing in bulk. Consumer platforms are not built to foster engagement between parties, much less negotiate.

3. B2C Patterns Are Geared to One-Time Sales

For many businesses, purchasing is cyclical (with adjustments). If you’re ordering today, you’ll be doing similar orders in the future, and probably on a regular basis. Asset life cycles and maintenance schedules are carefully tracked to reduce the risk of spontaneous failure and subsequent firefighting on the part of the procurement team.

Consumer platforms have no way to automate complex orders, so even if assets can be found on these sites, it’s more time consuming than necessary to order them.

4. No Formal Buying Processes or RFQ Capabilities

Most enterprises issue RFQs and do due diligence on potential suppliers before making a choice.

The consumer version of this buying pattern would only occur on major purchases, and would typically happen offline, for example to get quotes from several kitchen designers or plumbers.

If a procurement platform were truly created for businesses, it should have the ability to completely manage the RFQ process.

5. No Concierge/Rapid Sourcing Service

On consumer platforms, you do the legwork yourself. But enterprises very often seek external help and even demand more human touch points due to size, volume, and risk avoidance.

Having a connected concierge expert to help put an asset package together or source items for you is a real need in the B2B world, but it’s one that B2C business models and platforms are not built to accommodate.

6. No Way to Build a Relationship with Other Buyers or Sellers

Partnerships between buyers and sellers can be multifaceted and develop over time. They can involve a great deal of trust earned over a history of last minute rush orders and return favors.

On the other hand, B2C platforms work hard to keep buyers and sellers apart. This is due to concerns that buyers and sellers will move “off platform” to conduct their business and cut the platform out.

In B2B world, it is FAR easier to know nearly every company in your space and, if you don’t, find out about them via comprehensive company directories like Dun & Bradstreet.

Thus, creating relationships is a part of B2B and procurement platforms should be built to foster these connections, not prevent them.

7. No Audit Trail on Communications

If you buy on a consumer platform, communications often happen via email or over the phone.

The ideal B2B platform would allow communications in real time, all tracked and saved for complete transparency.

Inspired by consumer platforms, created for supply chain managers

Requis was created to bring the concept of cloud-based purchasing, asset management, and disposal to supply chain management. But there the resemblance to consumer solutions ends.

Get Requis B2B Procurement Platform

Designed by supply chain professionals, Requis is a Best-of-breed procurement platform that meets all of the unique needs of enterprise buyers and sellers. It’s a platform that contains a complete supply chain management solution, and a marketplace of companies vetted by Dun & Bradstreet.

In the 2017 Deloitte Global CPO Survey 77% of energy and resources CPOs reported that their role to deliver a digital strategy would increase in the next five years. This number is often higher in other sectors.

Requis is ready to make taking that step easier.

Learn More About Procurement on Requis >