B2B E-Commerce platform in India

While there  is lot of talk in India about the different models of e- commerce companies like marketplace model, online brand model etc. there is one model which is consciously missing from the Indian market – The B2B platform. Surprisingly the biggest e-Commerce company in the world Alibabba.com started itself as a B2B platform which thrived by helping buyers and sellers overcome lack of information and high search costs. The context is somewhat similar in India too. With too many SME’s scattered across the length and breadth of the country there is certainly lack of information which necessitates the need for a common platform to do Business.

One of the reasons for Alibaba’s success was the fact that it understands Chinese customers to the core. Most Chinese are tight fisted and hence Alibaba made its basic services free. It earns money by means by online advertisements and extra services like website design which it offers to its clients. With about 6 m sellers present on the platform many sellers are willing to pay for fancy storefronts and advertisements. Another quality which is common among Chinese is that they are reluctant to trust strangers. In order to cater to this need Alibaba came up with tools like independent verification service and Alipay payment system. Unlike PayPal, Alipay takes money upfront and deposits it into an escrow account.

The fact that some of the qualities like being tight fisted and not trusting strangers easily is a common quality among the Indian manufacturer’s as well.  And just like their Chinese counterparts they too face the issue of lack of information. Hence the possibility of a B2B platform in the Indian context cannot be completely ruled out.