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The age of the digital ecommerce marketplace is upon us. Amazon.com changed the retail world and now this change in consumer shopping behavior has influenced the B2B transactional experiences to follow suit.
“Platform” companies such as Amazon, AWS, Microsoft, Google, Shopify, Uber, and Netflix, are the most valuable companies in the world because of the user experience they deliver.
Companies in the IT channel have also fallen inline. Every IT distributor globally has a cloud and software marketplace, and some have even digitized their entire catalogs including hardware products to be sold in a digital marketplace experience.
By the way, I have extensive experience on this topic. CLICK HERE to get guidance on how to navigate this.
The question now becomes – how important is it for technology vendors to ALSO deliver their solutions to THEIR RESELLERS in a digital, automated, ecommerce experience?
In my opinion, it’s critical to your future. From my experience, here are the top 3 reasons that Technology Vendors should launch their own customer-facing digital ecommerce marketplace.
Why Launch Your Own eCommerce Marketplace?
The reasons you should consider launching your own digital reseller-facing marketplace are:
- Align with modern customer buying behavior.
- Streamline and automate your businesses processes to drive efficiency.
- Gain a massive competitive advantage.
The Top 3 Reasons to Launch Your Own Reseller-Facing Digital Marketplace
The top 3 reasons to launch your own reseller-facing digital marketplace are:
1. Align With Modern Customer Buying Behavior
I mentioned at the outset above that Amazon.com changed everything. The self-service shopping portal has become part of our everyday experience. What started as a B2C shift has transitioned into the B2B economy, and people are not just becoming accustomed to this “new” way of transacting, they actually prefer it.
Today, you’re able to purchase almost anything without ever speaking to a person. All research is done in advance, online, leading up to a purchasing decision being made without a live human interaction. The young generation has been raised with this behavior, and they are soon to become our business leaders.
Forcing people to purchase your products and services the “old school” way is short-sighted and will eventually lead to your market-share erosion.
2. Streamline and Automate Your Business Processes to Drive Efficiency.
Delivering your products and services in an automated ecommerce portal will drive many efficiencies in your business processes.
I’ve worked with many technology vendors who set out to modernize the delivery of their solutions in an automated marketplace. It is an absolutely painful process for most, often causing them to re-think their entire solution delivery strategy.
But the value that is ultimately reached is undeniable. Digitizing your solutions eliminates hours of manual processes, and the cost-savings that result are worth the effort.
3. Gain a Massive Competitive Advantage
The 2nd point above cannot be understated. Digitizing the delivery of your products and services is painstaking and time-consuming. Most companies will struggle with this effort, and many will not succeed.
Said another way, if you successfully achieve this, and launch a digital marketplace where all of your products and services can be researched, transacted, and delivered in an automated fashion, you will out-maneuver most of your competitors and you will steal share from them as modern buyers migrate to your company.
Furthermore, if your goal is to sell your solutions via IT distribution, most of these global distributors will require you to deliver your solutions in an automated marketplace that integrates directly into their digital platforms. If you lack that capability, selling through IT distribution will not be a viable path for you.
Conclusion
Many of you have spent years building successful companies. To stay relevant, you’ll need to adapt. Modernizing your company to deliver your products and services in a digital, automated model is vital to your future.
Again, I have extensive experience building digital marketplace strategies. CLICK HERE to schedule a Free Strategy Session with me to discuss this topic and any others on your mind.
