The B2B Marketplace Revolution: What Your Business Needs to Know

B2B sales through an increase in online marketplaces are only increasing. Gartner predicted back in 2020 that by the end of 2025 80% of interactions would happen online. From global giants like Canva and SEEK to local WA leaders like Galvins and Agora, B2B players across sectors are redefining how businesses trade.

According to Gartner’s Future of Sales in 2025: A Gartner Trend Insight Report , we’re now in the last phase. They predicted that “More interdependence of people, processes, and technology will render the traditional sales models less reliable over time.”

Mordor Intelligence has quoted that the global B2B e-commerce market is expected to reach $20–28 trillion USD by 2025 because of this huge growth.

Subscription-based business models, an emphasis on sustainability, the increase in procurement software, and the growth of international e-commerce is what’s feeding into this huge number. International retailers now account for more than half of all online shoppers worldwide.

While adoption is high, many B2B buyers still face challenges with e-commerce tools (from order errors to poor customer service), creating room for innovation.

Order errors affect over 30% of B2B transactions including order mistakes on both sides, but that also creates opportunity and opens up the playing field for better experiences, opportunities, and, of course, competition.

What is a B2B Marketplace?

A business of any size might visit an online marketplace to build and create relationships and pay for goods needed from their business to another business (B2B). They don’t have to mutually both exist only online; they may also have a bricks and mortar store. Marketplaces have been here for centuries; we’ve just taken it online. To help support your business and trade, you’d likely visit an online retailer. These aren’t necessarily physical products either. They might include digital products with sites like Canva Enterprise, offering collaboration and brand management tools. Or Seek, an online recruitment marketplace headquartered out of Melbourne. And, of course, we have Amazon Business, selling discounted goods to businesses globally.

In the conventional sense, we know that the best method to develop genuine relationships with those in the marketplace ecosystem is having a chat with the person you’re trading your business with. Relationship building cannot be underestimated, and we don’t believe there will ever be a ‘replacement’ for online only across the board for so many reasons. After all, we’re human and we like interaction and attention. These interactions are impactful for certain sectors, such as the trades - electrical, plumbing, construction which are still very much built on human interaction when ordering from one business to another. E-commerce may not replace this entirely, but instead it will be a value add, giving customers the option of convenience. Trading with one another is now simply more economical, and the decision to purchase and the time it takes to make a decision is more considered and potentially more economical when budgets are far higher.

B2B marketplaces have been designed to satisfy the requirements of businesses, enabling bulk orders, long-term contracts, and specialised services, in contrast to B2C platforms that serve individual customers.

A thing called COVID-19 changed our buying habits, forcing businesses into other digital channels. B2B and B2C audiences embraced the online purchasing world and e‑commerce experienced a huge spike in user comfort and adoption. That, along with the choice of click and collect and automatic re-ordering, put the control back into the hands of the purchaser. And let’s not forget the preference for general self-service and efficiencies. As much as we like human interaction, most businesses would like to order online and not dwell on it. Gartner reports that 75% of B2B purchasers prefer the ‘rep-free, digital transactions, even for over $50k.’ That said, purchasers are also opening themselves up to purchase regret and the advice from Gartner would be that sales and marketing look at how digital and human interactions work together to make a heady blend of purchasing superpower.

The Tech Behind the Transformation

The selection of systems to handle the heavy lifting of order processing, data analytics, procurement platforms, CRMs and ERPs guarantees that the information that has been requested is accurate, monitored, and completed. Together with process automation, this is guaranteeing a rise in competitiveness and productivity, and often numerous stacked platforms may be handling all of these. It’s an expensive exercise and a lot to take care of. To enhance ordering and interaction further, specialised native apps have also made their way into businesses where functions need to happen whilst businesses are on the go, not just from a desktop.

The introduction of procurement platforms has helped with the ease of ordering and purchasing for large-scale enterprise and we’ve found there are companies creating and finding solutions within this very bespoke area. Taking a huge mining company as an example, they will order not insignificant quantities of stock but there may be significant delays and occasionally even harm to a transaction or even a loss of purchase if this experience isn’t seamless.

Moving procurement along faster and with accuracy has been made simpler by streamlining procurement systems that include real-time inventory tracking, standardised ordering procedures and integrated payments. Greenwing Technologies are an example of this. Their punchout technology has made B2B procurement much easier. Called ‘punchout’, this technology ensures that what is ordered through an ERP system is correct and ties in with the inventory and invoicing to an existing internal system. Punchout catalogues connect to eProcurement systems with their custom-built punchout connectors. Why is this important? Because for a B2B business, it helps suppliers and buyers streamline their order processing, automate POs and invoices, and connect to over 100 procurement systems from one e-commerce platform.

As Hatchd has seen over the last few years, e-commerce has become more prevalent in the B2B industries we work with. We’ve helped B2B clients navigate this transition through smarter platforms, process integration and user-focused design.

Businesses that are adopting true B2B approach use this type of technology to serve both their regular and larger clients. In the case of Galvins Plumbing Supplies, they recently went through a huge transformation for their e-commerce strategy to lean on digital with the adoption of a native app and a full digital backend platform overhaul. The outcome was a more seamless integration within their ERP, and they saw a 99% improvement in sync speeds and real-time reporting.

Global and local B2B industries

From a global perspective, the likes of Canva have shifted and adapted hugely. In 2024, Canva launched Canva Enterprise. They could see how large organisations needed this level of service; they adapted. Their $50 million developer investment fund resulted in an increase in apps available on the platform. Canva now helps businesses with design sourcing and collaboration, reducing the time and effort traditionally associated with these tasks.

Guaranteed, most of us are aware of what this platform is and has evolved into. From its inception in WA to the behemoth it’s become. They made decisions through smart acquisitions and feature development, which took the B2B marketplace through a significant transformation. Only a few years ago, this was a basic platform that contained about 20 designer templates to what it is now. Taking it a step further, they’ve even coined the phrase "Canvassadors", those who mentor people in need of guidance!

Marketplaces for trading skills for work such as Seek cater to both B2C and B2B audiences, but B2B is by far their biggest area of growth and revenue. In FY2023, SEEK reported a 10% revenue growth to $1.2 billion. They grew by acquiring two additional companies within AI as a way to match jobs more accurately and ‘streamline operations’. Their main competition as they’ve grown is now LinkedIn and Indeed.

Growing in the B2B sense means innovation. What Seek did really well, was to listen to the businesses who were using them and launching employer branded tools, a little like Canva. It increased corporate client retention by 25%. Using both the Vervoe skill assessment platform and Seek Learning Service bumped up the company revenue by 15% over two years. Proof that aligning product development with what the business needs from an efficiency point of view, pays off.

More locally, the rise of Agora Livestock, created out of WA is another success story. Their model is quite different to any mentioned in this article. Agora is a marketplace that focuses on the trade of livestock between businesses.

The idea behind the livestock trading platform is to put sellers and buyers in contact with one another, reducing the need for livestock agents, aka ‘the middle man’, traditionally used in the livestock trade.

They have found that within this marketplace, the audiences are more about price discovery than they are about transacting and use this as market research. Not all visitors to the platform are created equally, so giving consideration to those audiences is key.

Perth's B2B sectors, such as mining, construction and agriculture, traditionally value local connections and confidence. Authenticity, local knowledge and personal relationships are valued by Perth's stakeholders and decision-makers. B2B deals here in WA in particular are cherished via in-person contacts, coffee dates, and collaborations to help each other out. In our experience, they do. That said, there is a significant advantage to saving time and doing some of the purchasing work online.

However, the giants and those who are coming after them are setting the example and demonstrating to us how it can be done. The challenge for all businesses trading online is to make this experience seamless for internal teams and customers.