Of late, Middle East has recently been the focus of B2B growth. Many companies in the region are in the process of starting B2B platforms for many benefits the marketplace model provides to the businesses.
Business dynamics have changed in the last few years. Today enterprises are moving applications to cloud. As B2B transitions online, the marketplace model is gaining traction. With Covid-19 driving online adoption behavior to a larger extent, many businesses are exploring what business value the digital transformation can offer to their business proposition and how their go-to-market approach is future proofed. With businesses thinking on those lines, the supply chain businesses are exploring the cost effective and operationally effective way of go-to-market initiatives leading to increase in marketplace type of business model.
“For many businesses B2B marketplace is an answer that helps with faster time-to-market and time-to-money, also by been lean and agile,” says Shahnawaz Sheikh, Vice President – Business Strategy at AmiViz, a B2B enterprise marketplace focussed on Cybersecurity business in the Middle East and Africa.
B2B eCommerce marketplace is rising rapidly over the years. If we were to look at two of the largest economies in the GCC region of the Middle East, namely Saudi Arabia and UAE, and then were to add another potential market – Egypt, current trends indicate that a fair amount of B2B purchasing is happening online. “A big majority expect business-to-business e-commerce to become more important in the coming years,” says Suchit Kumar, CEO for TEXUB, a global B2B marketplace.
In this region, restrictions that held back the growth of e-commerce in the past are slowly but surely disappearing. “Indications are that, for B2B e-commerce, a hybrid version of online and some amount of offline handholding would be the way forward until more confidence is built among decision-makers,” adds Suchit of TEXUB.
When it comes to B2B Cybersecurity Marketplace which is poised to be a game changer, AHAD B2B Cybersecurity Marketplace comes into play in the Middle East, bringing together leading cybersecurity vendors to help clients solve complex cyber security problems through a single platform, providing intelligence into the buying process.
“AHAD B2B Marketplace is one of the best places to buy cybersecurity products and services in the middle east. It is the solution for small, medium, and large businesses that are looking to boost their security capabilities by leveraging technology solutions available in our marketplace. Our marketplace features a total of 45 products & services from leading technology providers across the global,” says Rohan Daniel Nair, Founder & Chief Operating Officer at AHAD, a leading cybersecurity, digital transformation, and risk management company.
Not been able to resist the temptation of availing themselves of the growing Middle East B2B market, many companies are in the process of starting B2B platforms.
In a B2B business it is incumbent on the marketers that they should understand the profile of their buyers. It makes no sense to pitch aimlessly without any clue of the customers’ profiles, desires and requirements. Hence it is of immense importance that marketers should know their customers’ online behavior.
TEXUB has divided the market segments into two parts: seller hubs and buyer regions. The seller market hubs are India, UAE, USA, Singapore, Europe and Hong Kong. The target markets for the buyers are GCC, Africa, Europe, CIS, LATAM and Asia regions.
“Buyers and sellers in the IT and mobility trade, globally, are our primary market segment. The secondary market segments are vendors, distributors, and resellers, all trading within a B2B ecosystem,” says Suchit Kumar of TEXUB.
AmiViz’s concept of B2B marketplace is not just facilitating the payment gateway and helps fulfill just the online transactions. “In the concept of B2B marketplace we are bringing the whole business play to participate, ie., the sales engagement, the people engagement, automation of backend processes, virtual demo platform, effective collaboration tool with workflow, business transparency & visibility etc.,” says AmiViz’s Shahnawaz Sheikh.
As AmiViz is name of the company as well as name of the B2B marketplace platform on which the entire AmiViz business runs, it accommodates all types of channel partners ie., SMB Resellers, large SI’s, Consulting Firms, Managed Service Providers, Cloud Service Providers etc., “With respect to technologies, AmiViz will remain focused in Cybersecurity domain, covering a bit of adjacent technologies and building the specialized practices such as BFSI, Cloud, IoT&OT, Application Security and so on.” said Shahnawaz.
Advantages of B2B Marketplace
The B2B platforms are getting very popular for many advantages to business. “The platform brings many advantages to both vendors and channel partners by keeping the human touch intact that helps in solution selling and consultative selling to be more effective and real. All channel partners transacting with AmiViz have access to AmiViz Mobile App or Portal,” says Shahnawaz Sheikh.
The platform supports vendors in establishing themselves in global markets. TEXUB provides expansion opportunities for both large and small businesses by diversifying and broadening their sources. “The channel partners can scale their businesses and enhance their products in the new territories. Additionally, strategic regional tie-ups with prominent industry vendors would help both TEXUB and its vendors grow substantially in the market and boost business,” says Suchit Kumar.
The AHAD platform is a one-stop shop for everything related to cybersecurity. The advantage of the AHAD marketplace is that it allows vendors to reach customers directly from multiple industries, which means that the vendor has a much bigger pool of potential customers. As a result, they can offer their products and services at a lower price point than they could before.
“The advantage of the AHAD marketplace for customers is that they can find cybersecurity solutions which have all been vetted and verified by AHAD, so they know they’re getting quality work. Customers also get access to new products and services that might not be available elsewhere. We also offer a variety of payment options that make purchasing easy and convenient,” says Rohan Daniel Nair.
Future
Any enhancements to the traditional way of doing business that help improve efficiency are appreciated and adopted well over a period of time. “In my view I see more businesses going in that direction in the region and for the late adopters instead of reinventing the wheel, it makes sense for them to run their businesses on already existing and proven platforms. When it comes to Cybersecurity the B2B marketplace in this arena is expected to grow significantly in the MEA region. Rohan Daniel Nair of AHAD, says, “The growth of this market is driven by the increasing need for cyber security solutions to protect businesses against cyber attacks and to ensure their operations can continue uninterrupted.”