B2B Tactics Recommended by Alibaba that You Should Apply to Your Store

By / June 13, 2023
B2B Tactics Recommended by Alibaba

B2C has always been at the forefront of ecommerce selling, marketing their products to a variety of consumers and innovating selling practices to reach a wider audience. 

But while the B2C world has been all the glitz and glamor, there are B2B businesses who are adopting B2C practices to improve their business performance significantly. 

Besides Amazon, there is another innovator who has been a major influence on how we conduct B2B operations: that is Alibaba. 

In this post, we’ll be highlighting how Alibaba has contributed to the B2B industry and how you can benefit from the strategies they have used in their business processes. 

Join B2B Marketplaces

If you’re a prospective seller and want to sell without incurring the overhead of setting up your website, then you can always try out B2B marketplaces.

The costs of setting up a B2B marketplace are relatively low, allowing you to set up an eCommerce store without the overheads. Alibaba is one of those B2B marketplaces.

From reaching a broader audience to gaining recognition for your business, there are plenty of advantages of setting up a marketplace presence. Besides, the third party commission you have to pay to the marketplace, there isn’t any drawback to using the platform. 

Let’s give you a rundown of the advantages of online marketplaces: 

  • It provides an additional channel through which you can sell products. 
  • It reduces the cost of marketing compared to other channels. 
  • It allows you to grow your business to global locations. 
  • They provide customers convenience when comparing products. 
  • With original reviews of your products, you gain an unbiased perspective of your products. 
  • Provides an increased level of trust between you and the customer. 
  • Since marketplaces operate around the clock, it makes managing your business a lot easier. 

Create A Digital Storefront That Stands Apart

If you’ve just started in eCommerce, the word storefront might seem overwhelming to you. Believe me, it’s not. It’s just the digital extensions of your business page on the B2B marketplace. 

You would want to create a storefront that is different from the rest of the sellers out there. Ideally, you should use a clear logo, place contact information, and a menu of your products accordingly. When everything in your store is clear, then you can move forward and start selling your products. The goal of the pre-planning process is to make sure that all the details on your store are organized effectively and are appealing to customers. 

Optimize Your Product Listings

Seeing as how you’re not selling products in person; you need to let your marketplace presence do the work for you. 

To that end, you need to optimize your product listings to be visible to the most number of people. This means adding a stellar and detailed description of your products, adding high quality images, optimizing the names of your products with SEO standards, and providing a list of your minimum order quantities. 

When you add that optimized value to your products, you are increasing the likelihood of people purchasing the product from you. This is because the content present is not vague, and lets customers understand just what they are getting into. 

There are plenty of other ways you can optimize your product listings. 

Build a Social Media Presence

Build a Social Media Presence

Besides the general web presence, you also need to be active on social media. 

Social media is one of the most effective ways to build an audience, generate, and convert leads for your business. While you might think that it won’t work in the B2B sphere, you’d be wrong. From LinkedIn, to Facebook, and even Instagram – there is no shortage of customers on social media platforms. 

Maintain a strong social media presence that enables your business to get noticed. The what, when, and how you post, the way you reply to comments, among other things, matter a lot and can prove monumental in improving the B2B experience. 

Pro-tip: Share content that you’re passionate about and which showcases your knowledge of the industry, and provides an overall net benefit to your business. 

In the long run, all of these activities will lead to more customers dropping on your store. 

Attend Virtual Trade Shows

While this tip might have been more effective Pre-Covid-19, when social media events were an actual thing. Nowadays, conducting such events is far from even a long shot. 

Fortunately, most B2B companies and influencers have now shifted to digital webinars, and podcasting events to create an aura of a digital trade show. 

There are plenty of benefits to doing trade shows. Besides being a social participant in the industry, you also increase your chances of gaining more eyes, and in turn, more customers for your business process. 

If you’re having trouble getting your voice out to the public, then conducting webinars and digital trade shows are the way to go. It showcases your industry knowledge, and allows you to gain more customers to your ecommerce store. 

The best part about conducting digital trade shows is that it doesn’t require much overhead. All you have to do is invest in some good recording equipment and you’re good to go. Even that can be bypassed if you’re a small startup. The end goal is to deliver content and get your voice heard. 

Conclusion 

In this post, we discussed the tips recommended by Alibaba to gain more traction for your eCommerce store. 

To give you a run down, here’s what we discussed. 

  • Create a B2B marketplace. The better your marketplace, the more eyes you can get on your business. Marketplaces are an easy investment that doesn’t require much overhead. 
  • Create a digital storefront for your business processes. 
  • Optimize your product listing to gain more visibility to the audience. 
  • Get on social media as quickly as possible. It’s a land of opportunity that can make your business shine. 
  • Attend or become the host of a digital trade show. This is an efficient link building process that lets you gain more leads and network connections for your business processes.

With these four strategies in check, you can get started with your business process in no time! 

If you’re looking to set up a digital B2B presence online, then look no further than B2Bwoo – an all-in-one B2B ecommerce solution for WooCommerce. With the platform at your behest, you can provide your customers with a stellar B2B experience. 

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A writer by profession, Maria Ilyas is an eCommerce and digital marketing enthusiast and is always digging into the latest marketing trends, best practices, and growth strategies.