2021年7月3日

在新冠疫情后的世界里，电子市场占据主导地位。今天有各种各样的市场，但有必要为B2B市场研究一个单独的框架。Matrix Partners印度公司创始人兼管理合伙人Avnish Bajaj从个人角度解释了原因，他说:“Baazee显然是一个拍卖网站，现在被称为B2C市场。但是当我们2000年开始的时候，印度还没有市场。所以，我们必须抓紧时间，想办法生存下去。“这是我第一次了解B2B市场。在美国，它们最初是作为采购中心。例如Commerce One和Ariba。这两家公司的市值加起来达到了1亿美元。那是互联网泡沫的顶峰。” He adds that Niren Shah, who now runs Norwest Partners, advised the Baazee team that was looking to generate revenue to use auctions to save people money on procurement. “Our first auction was for StanChart Bank’s cheque books that they were procuring. They saved 27 percent and we used to charge 20 percent of the savings. It was a Rs 2 crore contract in 2000; this was serious revenue,” Avnish says. B2B: a full-stack experience When it came to different categories like auto or bank to dealer options, the team got the first exposure to the idea: how do you do this without being exposed to internet penetration in the country? That is the difference - B2B tends to be more controlled and a full-stack experience. “We used to actually tell people the auction event is happening between this time and this time, and call bidders sometimes to bid on their behalf because they don’t have access to the internet. Believe it or not, the INOX in CR2, the first INOX in Mumbai, all the seats were procured through the Baazee auction platform and we had international bidders coming in,” Avnish says. Thus B2B is more full-stack; you’ve to "provide logistics, procurement is one part, payments and trust issues are different as is opacity. It is very different structurally". The Alibaba example In B2B marketplaces, China’s Alibaba is taken as one of the best examples. It was horizontal and thin stack. Avnish explains this also has context. He says in 2001, China, which had started becoming a manufacturing hub through the 90s, joined the WTO. They had built up capacity and had to plug in demand; till then, they didn’t join WTO. As soon as they wanted to plug in demand, they joined WTO. The next thing you know, the world wants to buy, and they have the supply. At that time, China was still a controlled market, and Alibaba stood out. Exports from China were huge, especially smaller value, and larger ones would obviously probably be all in-person buying. “I think people have to keep that context. Now flip that context for India; what has happened? With China going through issues, Vietnam and Bangladesh are leveraging their experience; hopefully, we will too. There is now Make in India, MSME incentives …COVID. "COVID has made tech go very deep so we can also have these kinds of marketplaces that can do it. But I think Alibaba is very, very context-specific. Indiamart in India is also a little context specific. The reality is that if you have to do it today, you have to be much more full stack,” Avnish adds. Volume vs Value Avnish explains the differentiation begins in the buying process: light touch versus deep touch. “Does it require a lot of hand holding…how many buyers? Most businesses would not buy anything without an approval committee, without multiple levels of approval,” Avnish says. In volume versus value, in B2B ends up being a long sale cycle. It's higher value but once you get it there’s potentially a lot of repeat. B2C is higher volume and lower value. Pricing is very important - is it fixed, negotiated, or is there a contract? B2B will often have volume discounts, and negotiated bespoke pricing. “I think in our framework the founder architect tends to be very different. B2C tends to be more ‘C’ as in consumer; B2B tends to be more ‘B’ for Business. So I think domain becomes critical. B2C guys have more customer insight and think differently on emerging trends. "In B2B, if you’re providing logistics and payments, you can monetise all of that. In B2C typically, that’s taken as part of the service. Those are the differences; even though they’re converging, I think they’re significantly different,” Avnish says. Listen to the podcast here Edited by Teja Lele Desai We tell your stories. Stories that inspire change Sign up to follow stories that matter Login with Google Login with Facebook By signing up for yourstory you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of the platform