From the B2B giant Amazon Business to specialty marketplaces like Bay Supply in industrial fasteners and AIA in healthcare, marketplaces are fine-tuning their selling strategies. The just-released Building Better B2B Marketplaces report gives an inside look at how they’re improving and growing.

At Amazon Business, changes always seem to be in the works. To be sure, the fact that reported annualized sales already have surpassed $25 billion — and that Wall Street analysts estimate it will surge to $80 billion by 2025 — has not slowed Amazon’s development curve.

New developments include expanded free-shipping deals and artificial intelligence and machine learning applications to better match customer demand with available products from suppliers, says Todd Heimes, director and general manager, Amazon Business Worldwide. An inside look at the Amazon Business growth strategy is one of several articles on B2B marketplaces in the just-released Building Better B2B Marketplaces report.

In addition, Amazon Business has increased its sales and account services with large enterprises, including the procurement of direct goods used as components in manufacturing as well as the more common indirect goods like office supplies companies purchase for their internal operations.

The companies that use Amazon Business, meanwhile, are leaning more toward new ways of connecting with the marketplace that include using an application programming interface and avoiding its dot-com interface altogether.

“That’s exciting — and that’s where we’re headed,” says Chris Costello, executive vice president of worldwide strategic accounts.

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Among the other marketplaces trends in the report:

  • Industrial products distributor Bay Fastening Systems’ BaySupply.com has developing purchasing features designed to help its customers work for efficiently, including with new online payment options;
  • Germany-based apparel marketplace Fashion Cloud is entering the U.S. market with plenty of venture capital;
  • The trucking industry is driving ahead with marketplaces like Convoy;
  • Steer Technologies has a marketplace recipe for helping the restaurant industry;

The Building Better B2B Marketplaces report is available as a free download.

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