Just around a decade ago the B2B landscape in a lot of sectors in India was primarily driven by face to face meetings and physical visits. However B2B online commerce has just taken a new shape in the last decade driven by greater penetration of technology and internet across the country with a lot of slow and duplicate processes being made redundant. There has been a tectonic shift in the roles and organizational structures within both the seller and buyer community as technology has made things simpler, quicker and much more convenient for all.

1. Online Platforms

Today almost all B2B companies has moved to an online B2B commerce platform or built up ordering systems on their own. Gone are the days of people calling up over phone or emailing in orders which was then punched by an inside sales team with all the complexities of credit checks and inventory control. The visibility of inventory and automated checks of credit and other factors have lent in more transparency to the B2B buying and selling process making things more efficient and cutting out any unwanted roles.

2. EDI and API based Integrations

The proliferation of a lot of API and other EDI integration technologies has reduced the need to re-punch data and make changes to the system manually after receiving orders or fulfilling orders. Gone are the days when systems used to operate in silos which never connected with each other. Now with widespread integration available the entire process at the buyer and seller end is seamless with real time updates on data.

3. Payment Systems

The growth of payment system has resulted in the speeding up of the B2B commerce space. With NEFT and RTGS working on all 7 days and UPI adding a new dimension to payment collection, then entire process of conducting business from across the country without having to physically collect cheques and wait for their clearing has been a great blessing. You can easily and safely connect with buyers and sellers with robust banking and credit agencies being able to vouch for credibility of their customers.

4. Multi Platform Systems

A major takeaway in the technology driven B2B commerce section has been the accessibility of of systems to various stakeholders at a micro level. The number of players have increased by virtue of the easy and multi platform levels at which online commerce is available. Mobile, computers, laptops and ipads have changed the entire landscape. Ideally small B2B players in tier 2 towns are easily able to access mobile platforms which make it easier and more democratic for all users

5. Growth of logistics

I think a major development has been the growth in infrastructure and the teeming of a large number of small and big logistics players who are capable enough of handling various sections of the supply chain network. These logistics and supply chain providers have given a completely new dimension to the door to door delivery of goods making it easy to do business from any part of the country.

6. Data Analytics and BI

With the enormous amount of data being collected by various platforms it has become easy to customize products and offer solutions based on data to various customer groups. The ease of understanding the need and then translating the same into better services and products has taken up the entire B2B commerce to a great level of implementation success.

7. Personalization of services / products

With more and more players entering the B2B space each small target audience is being offered personalized services and products keeping in mind the ease with which the market can be expanded by simple ingenuity. The key moving forward will be to offer unique services and products to various market players without having a one size fits all kind of a solution.

The space looks pretty interesting and will get the much needed fillip by the advancement in technology, payment processes and improvements in infrastructure. This is space which is spoken less in media circles but needs more care and attention.