June 24, 2022 3 minutes reading

B2B US ecommerce to exceed $2tn next year

B2B ecommerce in the US is set to hit more than $2 trillion in sales next year, according to a study.

Findings from Forrester also show this method will make up 24% of all purchases and be worth $3tn by 2027.

It comes as other studies show an omnichannel approach is becoming increasingly popular in the business world.

Forrester estimates B2B ecommerce reached $1.7tn by the end of 2021, representing 16% of total sales in the US.

It forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 10.7% in B2B e-commerce over the next five years.

What's behind the figures?

Online consumption is now a custom experience for the majority of customers across the globe.

The private lives of buyers see seamless experiences through platforms like Amazon and Uber – why would they not want the same in business?

We have also witness a rapid move towards digital solutions, with McKinsey & Co estimating this transformation grew by decade in the first three months of lockdown.

Buyers and sellers turned to online channels, with their popularity now expected to remain high in the future.

What does it mean for organisers?

Online marketplaces are the perfect example of the networked business which have risen to dominate the web.

There are a number of reasons why marketplaces are an attractive line of business:

Network effects: the more users you get, the more useful/cheap your product becomes, the more users you get – Uber vs. taxis.
Barrier to entry: Once they have a strong network effect, it becomes increasingly difficult to enter or replicate the marketplace – Airbnb vs. hotels. Ecoystems of users are the new source of competitive advantage and market dominance.
No inventory means they are can be cheaper to operate easier to scale and easier to pivot.

For event organisers, online marketplaces come with some specific advantages:

Audience growth. Your brand can become embedded into the workflows of buyers year-round by providing an essential tool for finding and comparing products and services, which can significantly grow your audiences.
Revenue growth. Bundling recurring revenue subscriptions to a marketplace alongside exhibiting at an event is an opportunity to increase the value of exhibiting, gives suppliers more leads and ROI.
Brand protection. Most importantly, having a marketplace in your portfolio presents the opportunity for forward-thinking organisers to embed themselves in the transactions between our visitors and exhibitor audiences outside the confines of an exhibition.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it useful. At ExpoPlatform, we want to help you build better events and communities. Please get in touch and ask for a demo here. Thank you.

B2B US ecommerce to exceed $2tn next year

What's behind the figures?

What does it mean for organisers?

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