B2B Marketplaces connect buyers to multiple suppliers on a centralized platform. Buyers engage, compare, and purchase from many suppliers in one place.
With the growth of local commerce on the Web, the links between online and physical commerce are becoming stronger. In this guest post, Alex Rampell, the CEO and founder of TrialPay, explores the forces behind what he calls “online2offline” commerce.
According to statistics, the e-commerce market has been growing by 17-18% annually. People are increasingly buying online, which means e-commerce is becoming a profitable investment and an effective business tool. However, traditional online stores are gradually giving way to peer-to-peer marketplace platforms which are gaining incredible popularity. As PwC predicts, the so-called "sharing economy" will have reached $355 billion by 2025.
An online marketplace is a website or app that facilitates shopping from many different sources. The operator of the marketplace does not own any inventory, their business is to present other people’s inventory to a user and facilitate a transaction. eBay is the ultimate example of an online marketplace, they sell everything to everybody. There are many other types.