The elimination of the wholesale industry from the distribution models was predicted since digital commerce commenced into the market in 1990. This elimination is relevant as no one would want middle-party intervention when manufacturers can directly sell to their customers.
However, in the case of the construction industry, the demise of wholesale building materials suppliers businesses would never happen. The industry works with the distributors and wholesalers as a core way of supplying materials for projects because of the sensitivity attached to certifications and building laws in different countries. This is why the wholesale supply and distribution business would never be outmoded in the industry.
The construction industry can embrace e-marketplaces to improve their sales. As customer’s shift towards e-procurement continues to be at the fastest pace ever, the digital transformation can also help distributors and wholesale suppliers to stay competitive in the distribution model and extend sales to worldwide customers.
Let us now discuss some of the features that an e-marketplace made for building material distributors and wholesale suppliers must have:
1. E-procurement
Procurement of building materials through e-marketplaces requires consultant reviews and approvals. A B2B solution must digitize those approvals as a manual process increases the time spent in the procurement process. However, the majority of B2B marketplace solutions for the construction industry haven’t yet digitized the pre-sales reviews and approvals. Theconstructioncentral.com blazed the trail and brought this concept as a feature in the e-marketplace platform.
2. Inquiries and Quotations
Global construction material distributors must be able to give quotations and receive inquiries via the marketplace platform. This is one of the significant features that would make communications more time and cost-effective.
3. Product Information and Catalogs
Until comprehensive information is mentioned about a building material, no buyer can take the buying decision. This is the primary information needed by buyers and should be made available on marketplace platforms through detailed catalogs.
4. High Scalability
An e-marketplace should be efficient enough to contain a large amount of data. The marketplace performance should also not be hampered in any way if more products are uploaded or more wholesale building materials suppliers are listed.
Takeaway:
An e-marketplace should be able to address almost all the challenges that come in digitized procurement without increasing the cost or time expenditure.
At Theconstructioncentral.com, we aim to bring digitization in the construction industry through our robust global marketplace that simplifies the procedures for every stakeholder whether they are contractors, consultants, or suppliers.
Leverage our power-packed e-marketplace platform to embrace digitization for your building materials supplier’s business.