More than 90% of corporate customers express their preference for online purchases, and the onlineization of B2B cross-border e-commerce presents an irreversible trend

DTB (Direct to Buyer) will become the mainstream model of cross-border B2B in the future, opening up a new blue ocean for cross-border business procurement

According to Amazon's research1 , global commercial procurement has shown a clear trend of online, and 91 % of corporate customers indicate that they prefer to purchase online. By the end of 2022, 68% of corporate customers plan to complete more than 40% of their purchases online , compared to 56% of buyers in 2021, and the number of corporate customers purchasing online is rapidly increasing. Meanwhile, nearly one in ten (9%) corporate buyers said they expect more than 80% of their purchases to be done online .

The survey also found that companies that have begun to invest heavily and adopt online procurement in the context of more home offices have outperformed their peers in terms of revenue growth. As a new model of B2B cross-border e-commerce, DTB (Direct to Buyer) is helping companies to directly reach overseas terminal enterprises and institutional purchase users through digital channels, and will help greatly improve procurement efficiency. It will become the future B2B cross-border e-commerce mainstream business model.

In the past few years , the cost of logistics and supply chains has increased, and overseas consumer demand has fluctuated. Enterprises are facing various operating pressures. However, the scale of global B2B e-commerce has grown against the trend, presenting a trillion-dollar blue ocean market .

According to research data from third-party organizations , the global B2B e-commerce market size will be US$7.9 trillion in 20222 , and it is expected to reach US$20.9 trillion in 20273 . Industry reports indicate that e-commerce is currently the fastest growing channel, and that B2B product sales via e-commerce will grow by at least 10% annually through 2025 4 .

Judging from the data of Amazon Enterprise Shopping, Amazon Enterprise Shopping was put into operation in April 2015, and its global revenue reached 1 billion US dollars in the first year. By 2021, Amazon Enterprise Shopping’s global revenue has reached 25 billion US dollars . , The B2B cross-border e-commerce market has maintained a rapid growth trend.

Yang Jun -Jim

Vice President of Amazon China,

Head of Amazon's global store business buyer and seller business in the Asia-Pacific region

"At the Amazon Global Store Cross-border Summit in 2022, we listed ' cross-border commercial procurement ' as one of the next 'strategic' opportunities for the cross-border e-commerce industry in 2023. The onlineization of global commercial procurement is Irreversible, DTB will become the mainstream model of cross-border e-commerce B2B in the future . Amazon has a huge customer base, powerful digital tools and logistics infrastructure, and realizes the "three-in-one" transaction of information flow, cash flow and logistics The DTB model can effectively help Chinese sellers seize online shopping opportunities and greatly improve the efficiency of the entire industry. The DTB model will open up a bigger blue ocean."

Last year , Amazon Enterprise Purchase first proposed the concept of DTB (Direct To Buyer), and is committed to creating a "new channel for global direct purchase of enterprises" . Through the DTB model, enterprises can directly sell products to end enterprise customers, which greatly shortens the transaction process and reduces intermediate costs, and at the same time helps to build their own brands directly to end users.

Relying on the 9 major sites of Amazon Enterprise in the world , Chinese sellers have the opportunity to directly reach more than 5 million high-quality corporate and institutional users . A wide range of customer groups covers small businesses, schools, hospitals, non-profit organizations, government agencies and large All walks of life, including multinational corporations, bring abundant business opportunities to sellers in different fields.

In the past few years , one of the things that Amazon Enterprise Shopping has been insisting on is to continue to deepen the industrial clusters with Chinese characteristics, and empower the industries to bring manufacturers across borders. On Amazon's global site, Chinese sellers, relying on strong supply chain advantages and manufacturing capabilities, have firmly grasped the typical strategic categories of industrial products, office supplies, school supplies, commercial furniture, and commercial IT . Business opportunity.

At the same time, it also shows great potential in categories such as commercial kitchens, scientific research laboratories, medical care, hotel supplies and maintenance auto parts . In different fields, Chinese sellers have launched a variety of products that meet user needs and application scenarios, such as disinfectant water, masks, medical testing equipment and other medical equipment supplies, 3D printers, STEM teaching aids and other school supplies, daily stationery, order books, etc. Office supplies such as book machines and whiteboards are very popular in the field of commercial procurement.

Not only that, but another unique resource provided by Amazon Enterprise to sellers is the opportunity for businesses to purchase large orders in bulk. Amazon Enterprise Buying undertakes the bulk purchasing needs of large corporate institutional buyers, and has a global professional team to assist in facilitating transactions. Through the Custom Quote Engine , the seller can complete the inquiry, quotation and fulfillment of large orders online, and make complex offline B2B transactions online. At the same time, in order to help sellers reduce the transaction costs of bulk orders, Amazon Business also launched a tiered commission, the higher the order amount, the lower the commission rate.

medical insurance

High overseas demand drives strong categories

In the past few years, the world has experienced various challenges in the medical system , and medical institutions, research laboratories, and enterprises have increased their demand for disinfection water, masks, medical testing and other equipment. According to data released by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products , in the first half of 2022, China's medical device exports amounted to US$44.045 billion , and medical devices were exported to 220 countries and regions5 . From January to October 2022, the export value of health products will be 298 million US dollars , a year-on-year increase of 25.29% .

Healthcare buyers have very specific product and feature needs, and sometimes need to find critical supplies on short notice. And Amazon research also shows that continuous improvement of procurement efficiency is the first procurement element that buyers in the healthcare field want to improve . Online commercial procurement models, such as Amazon Enterprise Purchase, enter the enterprise supplier system through visual procurement and long-tail procurement, and accumulate high-quality customer groups; and can penetrate into the enterprise by scene, stage, and category according to the needs of enterprise customers The market segmentation of planned procurement effectively simplifies the commercial procurement process and greatly improves the commercial procurement efficiency.

In the past few years, many Chinese companies have strictly checked the materials and comfort of medical products, and made efforts through cross-border e-commerce B2B tracks such as Amazon Enterprise to achieve international layout. Now they are able to compete in the medical device industry More and more Chinese brands are seen on the world map.

Wenjian Medical from Shenzhen is one of the representatives of Chinese medical going overseas

In the medical dressing industry with strict standards, Wenjian Medical absorbs natural plant fibers and makes them into comfortable cotton products, which are far away from chemical stimulation, safe and healthy without losing warm care. Through the layout of the three major brands of " winner Jianjian Medical ", " Purcotton Cotton Era " and " PureH2B Jinliang Life " , covering medical and health care, personal care, home care and other domestic and foreign fields.

Among them, in the overseas C-end market, relying on the " winner Steady Medical " brand, the main products are cotton soft towels, light skin care adult care series and wound dressings that have been well received in China. Today, Wenjian Medical has created a beautiful "business card" in China, and has been ranked among the top three in the export of medical dressings in China for many years .

Office Supplies

Product + marketing to create a highly recognizable brand

As one of the rigidly- needed categories of commercial procurement, office supplies have always been an advantageous field for B2B cross-border e-commerce. How to make Chinese stationery brands win the favor of overseas corporate customers and realize the globalization of office supplies brands is a challenge faced by many companies in the process of going overseas.

"National Stationery Brand"' s effective internationalization road is obvious to all

Deli started as an OEM for international brands. In 2018, it transformed into a cross-border e-commerce business through Amazon. The products it sells cover many applications such as office meetings, festival decorations, short-distance commuting, and laboratory cleaning required by enterprises and schools. Scenes.

In the process of going overseas, Deli insists on focusing on products, and through word-of-mouth marketing, makes products the best endorsement of the brand . Secondly, in terms of brand design, we can effectively combine consumers' visual experience, localize the scene, and design different visuals according to the brand style.

At the same time, they fully explore the value of brand marketing, and build brand awareness by presenting unified visual symbols on social media and planting promotional materials. Deli fully grasped the commercial procurement potential of office /school supplies, grasped Amazon’s business purchases such as the back-to-school season and the start-of-work season, and used tools inside and outside the site to increase overall sales on Amazon by 323% year -on-year , and the average sales volume of commercial procurement orders Also higher than the overall 40.8% .

commercial furniture

Leading the journey of "breaking the circle" made in China

Furniture is a manufacturing industry with traditional advantages in China. In recent years, commercial furniture has also begun to go overseas, becoming one of the representative industries of "Made in China" going global.

At the same time, on the demand side , there have been more and more remote office models overseas in recent years , and the demand for overseas consumers to purchase office furniture such as desks, chairs, and adjustable desks has grown rapidly; As well as relatively mature production and processing technology and industrial chain advantages, it has seized the international commercial furniture market .

Wanbao Smart Home from Anji wins the favor of overseas customers

Anji, Zhejiang is the hometown of China's chair industry. Today, Anji chair industry is the world's largest production base of office chairs. For every two chairs exported , one is produced in Anji. Wanbao Smart Home from Anji repositions its products after researching the market size, grading, price, functional selling points, appearance design, and competitive advantages of the Amazon site , and carefully polishes each new product. The success has made the high-quality Anji chair win the favor of overseas customers.

Wanbao Smart has brought a large number of orders to Amazon through its deep participation in Amazon's corporate purchases, setting up functions such as corporate price and quantity discounts exclusive to B-end corporate buyers. In 2019, Wanbao Smart , which had monthly sales of 2,000-3,000 US dollars , will increase its annual sales to 40 million US dollars by 2021 , ranking among the top categories on Amazon’s US site .

Hotel Supplies

Potential overseas stocks with different positioning to develop niche tracks

At the World Cup in Qatar not long ago, Made in China once again received heated discussions at home and abroad. From the stadium to the power supply, to the container houses in the fan village, "Made in China" shined brilliantly on the world stage with the help of the spillover effect of the World Cup. In the field of corporate procurement, Chinese brands represented by hotel supplies have also accelerated their pace of going overseas.

AIKE Ike

Domestic leading brand focusing on hand washing technology

AIKE is a leading brand focusing on hand washing technology in China. It has been doing foreign trade OEM business for more than ten years before entering the cross-border e-commerce . At the beginning of 2018, AIKE learned that there are many B-end customers on Amazon, so it went online on the Amazon US station and opened Amazon Enterprise Shopping at the same time, and achieved very good sales results in the first year .

Aike clearly recognizes the difference between corporate buyers and individual consumers. Unlike subjective individual consumers, who pay more attention to product appearance and brand culture, corporate buyers pay more attention to product quality stability and after-sales service. By adding corporate information, they improved the B-end page display , enhanced the trust of corporate and institutional buyers , and increased the conversion rate of purchase decisions .

When doing traditional foreign trade in the past, AIKE needed a large number of sales teams to develop customers through channels such as exhibitions, online development, and customer visits , and experienced a long procurement cycle, multi-level relationship maintenance, and investment of various resources. Through Amazon, AIKE only needs one person in charge of cross-border e-commerce to successfully start the operation of the Amazon US station, and three full-time operators can handle hundreds of millions of business volume .

Since its opening, Ike’s sales performance on Amazon has doubled every year , and more than 30% of the orders have come from B-end buyers. It has won the well-known names of McDonald’s, Mazda, Oracle, Hilton, overseas government agencies and other industries on Amazon. Business purchase orders from enterprises and institutions, and small B-end customers such as nail salons, small restaurants, and homestays are also their main customer groups, successfully confirming niche categories, and high-quality products can also ride the wind and waves overseas.

Data Sources:

1. Amazon Business, 2022 State of Business Procurement Report, 2022

2. Grand View Research, Business-to-Business E-commerce Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, By Deployment Type (Intermediary-oriented, Supplier-oriented), By Application, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 – 2030

3. Research and Markets, 2020

4. eMarketer, US B2B Ecommerce Forecast 2022-2026, 2022

5.36Kr, From product export to brand export, what are leading domestic device companies doing? , 2023.1