How to Build B2B Fashion Marketplace

The fashion business is a powerful means to connect the unconnected to global trade. You must be aware of the success of popular fashion B2B marketplaces, such as Joor, Zilingi, OrderMyGear, etc. They all have common points that any fashion organization launching its marketplace must know.

The first one is a valuable business idea. Businesses agree to use marketplaces if they find them beneficial with high-quality, competitive prices and convenient processes.

Take the example of Alibaba.com: it has assisted countless businesses in building their presence in the digital world and expanding their revenue quickly. This platform has helped various businesses to post their products for free and sell them internationally.

The next common point is generating profits. If making money is your goal, knowing your marketplace and how to build it is a rich lode.

Many common points help B2B fashion platforms conquer challenges, such as finding suitable platforms to sell clothing and cosmetics.

B2B Fashion Marketplace: Key Statistics Determining the Online Shift

• The report says revenue in the fashion industry will show an annual growth rate of 8.60%, resulting in a projected market volume of US $999.50 by 2028.
• The market size of global fashion eCommerce will increase to $1,222.32 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of 10.5%.
• B2B marketplaces are developing 72 times faster than B2B eCommerce. This growth underlines the growing popularity and significance of these platforms.
• In 2022, sales on B2B marketplaces reached a colossal $130 billion in 2022. It demonstrates the substantial revenue potential for businesses leveraging these marketplaces.
• Investors heaped $6.4 billion in 2022 into B2B marketplaces.

In this blog, you will learn how to build B2B fashion marketplaces and about prominent use cases of it.

Steps to Build a B2B Fashion Marketplace

Modernizing the buying and selling path by creating or using a B2B fashion marketplace is a new source of income for your venture, improving your growth. Considering this, below are essential steps required to create a B2B fashion platform.

Step 1: Conducting Market Research

A market survey data is promising for a successful fashion marketplace. It helps identify the demand for fashion products. A new marketplace business has the opportunity to fit in with its services or products, especially if there is a market gap.

Further, insights into buyers' needs will provide information on how to develop the B2B fashion marketplace. You want to shape the business into providing solutions that meet buyers' needs. Such business setups help gain buyer traction.

Step 2: Identifying Fashion Sub-Niche

Fashion eCommerce includes different sub-niches that lead to a marketplace with specialized roles. The sub-niche can potentially rake in the targeted revenue from the business as per the investment capital.

Below are the sub-niches within fashion eCommerce:

• Shoes: Global Sources, Alibaba, We Want Shoes, etc.
• Clothing and Apparel: Fibre2Fashion, Showroom B2B, Amazon, etc.
• Accessories and Bags: Danagi, FashionPo, Pepperi, etc.
• Jewellery and Luxury Items: Etsy, Amazon, GemAtlas, etc

Step 3: Defining Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

A B2B fashion platform stands out when built around offering key USPs. Marketing them helps position your business uniquely in the market. USPs are the reasons buyers visit the platform for their requirements.

Here are a few catalysts that reinforce buyers' interests:

• Easy Access: The platform easily provides buyers with products, such as cosmetics or clothes, or services, such as home delivery.
• Cost Advantage: Product costs undercut standard market procurement prices.
• Value Addition: The platform digitizes intermediaries or agents, adding buyer value.
• Large Network of Sellers: A platform is a pool of introducing a large seller base to the buyers so they can choose them conveniently. However, not all sellers can invest in finding the right buyers.
• Efficiency and Convenience: The platform can shorten legacy B2B procurement processes, providing convenience. This can be made possible with the aid of purpose-driven platform features.

Step 4: Recognizing the Platform's Crucial Features

An individual can proceed with understanding the key underpinnings that can streamline the operations of the eCommerce platform. Below are the essential features that permit hassle-free online interactions:

Request for Quote Functionality

Businesses stay flexible with the products' prices in the B2B space, subject to varying pricing strategies. These prices rely on various factors, including the demand-supply gap, competition strategy, buyer relations, order volume, brand considerations, inventory status, etc.

Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) and Bulk Orders Discounts

Bulk order discounts and minimum order Quantities encourage bulk orders on the platform, helping sellers plan internal operations, such as packaging and logistics, accordingly. Also, they can set their pricing tactics around high-volume orders.

Product Catalog

Fashion products need detailed product descriptions for buyers to reckon the products appropriately. A rich-featured product analog aids in detailed descriptions of the products and helps prospects make buying decisions.

Flawless Workflows with Task Automation

In the fashion niche, marketplace management requires effort from sellers and the admin to arrange and manage their respective businesses on the platform. Logic-driven, streamlined workflows, along with automation of repetitive tasks, help in such business activities.

Products and Services

A B2B fashion portal connects users across the supply chain in a fashion ecosystem. Those users can sell textile looms, raw materials, and other unfinished products. The buyers can source unfinished products alongside or without services if the platform supports both. For example, cloth printing or tailoring services. It helps the platform onboard a large hub of sellers and provides varying products across the fashion supply chain.

Extensive Analytics and Reports

Analytical data and reports are vital to understanding the fashion platform's products, performance, offers, buyer engagement, sellers' value, etc. Thus, a data-driven business strategy helps you attain excellent results.

Smooth Info-driven Buying Experience

B2B buyers need a well-laid, logic-driven buying experience. It offers key information and suggestions at every stage of the buying journey. For example, product features or recommendations tell the buyers about the savings at the checkout page, leading to more conversions on the platform. Also, buying the platform is efficient, which minimizes user effort.

Buyer-Seller Communication Channel

Communication and long-term relationships drive B2B transactions between sellers and buyers. Thus, it is crucial to have a communication channel on the platform connecting buyers and sellers.

Further, a B2B fashion platform is rich in features for its target audience. Learning about such features helps you build a marketplace of your preference.

Step 5: Developing the Platform

• The Legacy Approach: The step to develop a platform comes after creating a blueprint based on analysis (previous steps). The legacy approach includes recruiting a team of outsourcing development or professional developers to a fashion firm that provides eCommerce development services. This process requires significant time. The time invested means development hours at an hourly rate. Thus, the business venture commits an important investment capital for platform development.
• The Modern Approach: After analyzing the legacy development approach discussed above, it is essential to ask a question. Why is going through the development process frequently important during eCommerce website development? The help of Hyperlocal Cloud eCommerce solutions can reduce the development process.

One can opt for a solution that suits the needs of a B2B marketplace platform.

Thus, eCommerce solutions come at a fraction of the development cost embraced in the legacy process, though the cost varies according to the solution opted for.

B2B Fashion Marketplace: Know About Its Possible Revenue Channels

Did you know marketplace platforms help you earn via multiple methods by bifurcating responsibilities between the Admin and third-party sellers? Below are some popular revenue channels-

• Subscription Fees: Introducing subscription packages on the users' platforms can be a lucrative way to make more bucks in addition to the commissions charged.
• Commissions: It is one of the great ways to build revenue, helping fashion platforms earn commissions charged to users for every closed deal on the platform.
• Backend Services: Businesses offering backend services, relying on the infrastructure in place, can be a source of revenue.
• Monetizing Website Assets: It includes running PPC campaigns or monetizing website assets, such as banner images for sellers to publish advertisements.

These revenue channels might seem most common to you, especially at the initial stage of the business. A multi-seller platform can earn money via numerous other revenue channels. Multi-seller businesses scale up, permitting businesses to discover opportunities via partnerships, business diversification, acquisitions, and more. The best example of this is Amazon Business.

Use Cases of B2B Fashion Marketplace

Discussed below are some of the prominent use cases that are shaping the B2B fashion marketplace and the future of the fashion industry. These use cases unveil more opportunities and possibilities for upcoming B2B fashion platforms to leverage the advantages of digital B2B interaction.

Zilingo Shopping

It facilitates trade across fashion, fabric, lifestyle, home goods, health and beauty, office supplies, and more. A B2B marketplace offering multi-category fashion products, including shirts, kidswear, sleepwear, winter wear, loungewear, and more. Zilingo Shopping serves deals with retail market segments. Fashion firms can launch their business on Zilingo or sell their products, multiplying their digital footprints.

OrderMyGear

It is the superior B2B fashion marketplace, ranked 3rd among 354 competitors, offering fashion products for companies. It allows them to place their fully customized stores for selling footwear, wardrobes, and other fashion accessories. Further, it helps to administrate store performance and fulfill orders.

Joor

One of the finest online wholesale marketplaces for the women's fashion industry, Joor provides a digital portal for B2B transactions between designers and retailers. Brands can find prospects, manage orders online, and feature collections. This platform benefits retailers by offering search and social networking functionality for discovery, communication, and buying.

ORDRE

This online B2B marketplace for fashion brands and retailers allows users to connect with registered users and conduct transactions. Every registered user gets a customized app and website to showcase their products. The app or website features a 360-degree product view, analytics reports, and more. ORDRE provides VR headsets for facilitating cloth fitting assistance.

Queen of Raw

This online B2B marketplace offers textiles and fabrics. Its product catalog includes raw materials, such as silk, faux leather, fur, cotton, fabric materials, knits, wool, and synthetic.

Wrapping Up!

Irrefutably, B2B fashion is a lucrative industry for upcoming marketplaces to start an online business. The business features easy logistics, an international footprint, and buyer acceptance for online retail. Further, the recent changes in the industry, both internal and external, marked market disruptions waiting to occur. Developing B2B marketplaces opens up opportunities for fashion businesses.

With Hyperlocal Cloud, launch your B2B fashion marketplace at the next level!