Start doing online business using B2B Portals in Six Steps

I registered with a B2B site but what's next?

This is a question many first time users of B2B marketplaces ask themselves. A few expect that the registration itself will bring them a number of new customers. In some cases this might by true! Especially, if you are a seller of some much coveted items. But for rest of us, things are a little trickier! A large B2B marketplace has a lot of suppliers of similar products, who are vying for the attention of potential customers. To establish your company as a favored one among them is not an easy task! However, a little planning and thorough follow up of some basic guidelines improve your chance of getting noticed by buyers significantly.

Below, I outlined some of the basic steps that you should take once you seriously decide to market your products using B2B marketplaces.

1 Write a nice profile

When a prospective client sees your trade lead ad or your product on the marketplace and feels interested, the first thing he does is - checks your company profile out. That's where the buyer gets his initial information about your company. If you have a virtually blank profile with a very little information on your company, doubtful that the potential client will even bother to make a request for quote. That's why you should spend a little time on writing a nice company profile. Here are some aspects that you should emphasize on while writing your company profile.

Start your profile with something noteworthy about your company. This could be the distinct quality that sets your business apart from your competition.

Describe your present customer base, target market and any new products or projects that you are planning to come up with.

Write a bit about your company history. When the company was incorporated? What is the business form?

If you have something to boast about, do it! If you feel that your sales figures are impressive, why not mention them.

Be brief! The profile should not be more than five paragraphs. You don't want your buyers to get bored!

2 Include your logo on your Storefront page

If you would like to separate your company from many other similar vendors, you have to think seriously about creating a brand for your company. Brand is the distinctive pattern of your business operation. It portrays the nature of your service or product, your uniqueness in comparison to others etc. A nice looking logo is a key to branding your company. Customers will remember your company name better if you have a great logo to go with.

3 Add products to your storefront

It is important to have your main products, products that are your primary sale generators, added to your storefront. Products with nice picture and well descriptions capture buyers attention more than any thing else. After all the reason that the buyers are on your page is to look for the products that they need.

New Great Storefront Services

Whether you are a small enterprise, which sells goods and services locally, or you are a medium to large company with global reach, Rusbiz is planning to introduce great storefront services with complete corporate site to match your every business need. Features include:

Basic

Single page storefront

10 products in E-catalog

Sales through e-marketplace

RFQ and Quotation

Negotiations

Internal Messaging Service

Many other features

Available now and it's free!

Enterprise

10 different templates to build multiple-page storefront

100 products in E-catalog

Sales through e-marketplace

RFQ and Quotation

Negotiations

Purchase Orders

Invoices

Tax Calculation

Shipment tracking

Internal Messaging Service

Merchant Account

Many other features

Coming soon!

Corporate

10 different templates to build multiple-page storefront

1000 products in E-catalog

Sales through e-marketplace

RFQ and Quotation

Negotiation

Purchase Orders

Invoices

Tax Calculation

Shipment tracking

Internal Messaging Service

Merchant Account

Many other features

Coming soon!

4 Make nice pictures of your products

Nothing can turn off a prospective buyer than a hazy or blur picture of the product that he intends to buy from you. If your competitor's product with exactly same features has nicer picture, guess who has a better chance to get the business? Spend some money and take professional pictures of your products. Make sure that you followed all the instructions of the Portal before uploading the pictures.

5 Post your products for sale on the marketplace

Product visibility is the name of the game! Don't confine yourself just by adding products to E-catalog and your Storefront. Post products for sale on the E-marketplace.

There are numbers of great advantages of posting products on E-marketplaces:

Frequent browsers of marketplace can see your products

Buyers can compare your products with others on marketplace

Buyers can take an immediate buying decision and make an instant Purchase Order.

6 Post trade leads

For many not-so-savvy users of B2B sites it's a bit complicated to make buys and sales through marketplaces. They prefer to get trade leads from the site and make contacts with buyers or sellers by fax, phone or just emails. Posting trade leads is a great marketing method to tap new territories. Don't be disappointed if you do not get immediate feedbacks. Repeat trade leads at least once in a month. Since normally a portal constantly acquires new members, in order to expose the leads to bigger audience, it is worthwhile to post trade leads frequently.

About The Author

Nowshade Kabir, Ph.D., is the founder, primary developer and present CEO, of Rusbiz.com, a global business to business e-commerce portal with feature like storefronts, aggregated catalog, e-marketplace, trade leads, internal messaging system supply chain solutions, etc. With a doctorate in Information Technology, Dr. Kabir has worked an advisor to government projects and has over 12 years experience in International Trade. An author of many B2B and business related articles; he publishes a bi-weekly E-zine for online business community. You can subscribe to his newsletter free of charge from http://www.rusbiz.com.

nowshade@rusbiz.com

---

Rules for Achieving Online Success

The Internet brought a great deal of benefits to our... Read More

The Five Steps of E-Commerce

You set up a retail business, you advertise in your... Read More

Web Users Crave Familiarity

The sad truth is, general Web users would love it... Read More

The Webmasters Assistant

There are many tools available to a webmaster to analyse... Read More

10 Reasons Why People Wont Buy A Second Product From You

1. You didn't follow up after the first sale. After... Read More

5 Powerful Ways to Make Money Online with a Website

There are many ways to make money online and the... Read More

Two Pillars of a Successful Web Site

For a web site to get close to fulfilling its... Read More

Shopping Carts and the E-Aisles

Have you ever gone to the store and thought you... Read More

E-commerce: Is It Right for You?

The birth of the Internet and the mass availability of... Read More

6 Steps to Attracting Black Customers Online

by Jamila White, "The E-Commerce Diva"In the rush to keep... Read More

Online Payments Make It Easy For Your Customers To Buy

In the last column we discussed the process of credit... Read More

Prompt Delivery Rules ? Internet Product Sales

The Internet is the fastest growing source of mail order... Read More

Something new in e-commerce: the Echo System Build

How four partners build and manage an exclusive art posters... Read More

Helping Your Visitors: a State of Mind

What does "helping your visitors" mean exactly?It means writing your... Read More

Your Affiliate Web Site Is Built ? Now What?

When I first got my web site built, I thought... Read More

Creating The Perfect Ecommerce Website

If you're thinking of jumping on the bandwagon and going... Read More

The Top 10 E-Commerce Ways to Follow up with Clients - Part 1

Did you know that 80% of all sales are made... Read More

eCommerce Software Solutions

All of the long, grueling nights and an unknown number... Read More

Eleven Things You Must Know About A Drop Shipping Directory And Its Company

1. Balance - You want to find a directory rich... Read More

How To Find the Best Merchant Account For Your Business

What a great idea! Start accepting credit cards and watch... Read More

Why This Is The Perfect Time To Start Charging For Website Subscriptions

If you're a writer, researcher, subject matter expert, enthusiastic hobbyist,... Read More

Tell Site Visitors What To Do

Your site visitors make all the choices when it comes... Read More

The Lowdown On ECommerce: Making All The Pieces Fit Together

The Lowdown on EcommerceEcommerce is truly the most confusing aspect... Read More

10 Reasons To Survey Your Visitors, Subscribers And Customers

1. To find out what type of content visitors want... Read More

7 Questions to Ask A Potential Internet Merchant Account Provider

Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with... Read More

Excuse Me, Are You Wasting Traffic?

The largest cost and concern of an internet business is... Read More

How to Gain Your Visitors Trust

If you are serious about selling on the world wide... Read More

Looking For Free Advertising, Here It Is!

There are lots of ways to advertise for free but... Read More

Online Consumers ? What Are They Complaining About?

For many businesses, e-commerce represents a tremendous method for generating... Read More

How to Generate Cash from Your Web Site

The Internet has changed the way people do business today.... Read More

Selling Globally Through a B2B Exchange

Participation in B2B Exchanges is increasingly becoming one of the... Read More

Accept Credit Cards Online Without a Merchant Account

There are two major ways to accept credit cards on... Read More

The ClickBank E-Commerce Solution

ClickBank.com can offer you multiple solutions for your e-commerce business.... Read More