Participating in e-marketplaces is good for business

Research published by MarketSite Africa this week indicates that suppliers find enormous benefit in online trading through e-marketplaces and that e-marketplace participation results in increased sales and improved customer relationships. According to a survey conducted among the suppliers trading on MarketSite Africa, the outlook for e-marketplaces and the potential for business benefit are excellent.

The research findings, focused solely on suppliers, reveals that 32% of the suppliers to MarketSite Africa, a Commerce One e-marketplace, active during 2001 had seen their sales improve through participating in the e-marketplace. In addition nearly half (43%) of these suppliers found an improvement in their customer relationships through use of the e-marketplace. A further 42% indicate that their sales are unaffected by their participation in the e-marketplace, while 37% say relationships with their customers are unaffected. The results show clearly that suppliers are benefiting from participating in e-marketplaces.

Christine Thomson, director of supplier adoption and vendor management, Commerce One South Africa - Distributor Operations, says these results indicate that there is a real value proposition for suppliers who join e-marketplaces. "It is encouraging to see that suppliers are starting to realise real business benefits from the e-marketplace," she says. "These research findings confirm that significant tangible benefits exist for suppliers who use e-marketplaces. Some of these suppliers have obtained new business through the e-marketplace that they had not foreseen, and we`ve seen a softening of scepticism towards e-marketplaces," she adds.

The survey canvassed opinion from 89 suppliers across different commodity groupings from different categories ranging from provision of stationery, mineral and textile materials, chemicals, paper materials, electronic components, lighting and electrical accessories, food and beverages products and many more.

Says Thomson: "There are currently 340 suppliers active on MarketSite Africa across 38 commodity groups (or categories) ranging from chemicals, paper materials and products to communications and computer equipment to food and beverage products, with 3 500 buyers trading. Close on R500 million order value has been transacted by various customers since the beginning of the year."

Key clients of MarketSite Africa include Sasol, M-Web CommerceZone, FirstRand and Bidvest (mymarket.com).

Lizette McIntosh, supplier activation manager, says the research also reveals that most suppliers have a good understanding of e-procurement. "There was a generally positive response to e-business from the suppliers and these suppliers indicated they are aware of the benefits that e-procurement can bring to their businesses," she says. "We expect our take-on of suppliers to increase as more companies realise the real business benefits they can achieve through the use of an e-marketplace."