This post is part of our ‘Beyond the Webinar’ series, where we dive deeper into key themes from our panel, Reclaiming Control in B2B. Watch the on-demand webinar here.
Marketplaces have reshaped how businesses buy and sell, but for B2B companies, public platforms often introduce more challenges than solutions. To unpack this shift, we hosted a conversation with three industry experts:
- Sean Last, Director of Partnerships at Balance, specializing in B2B payments
- Kevin Kazenmayer, VP of Strategic Business Development at TradeCentric, an expert in procurement and supplier enablement
- Matt Boland, IC, Global OMS Sales at Infios, focusing on supply chain optimization
Each brought unique expertise on why B2B companies are moving away from third-party marketplaces and toward private, controlled environments.
Want deeper insights from the experts?
What Makes a Private Marketplace Different?
B2B companies familiar with public marketplaces like Amazon or Alibaba understand the appeal: massive reach, built-in infrastructure, and ready-made traffic. But these benefits come with significant trade-offs: loss of control, thinning margins, and competition against unknown third-party sellers.
As Matt Boland put it, private marketplaces are invite-only ecosystems designed for businesses that value consistency and trust. Instead of battling thousands of unvetted resellers, companies can curate their suppliers, ensuring quality, compliance, and reliability.
And for businesses managing multiple brands? A private marketplace unifies everything in one place, preventing fragmentation across separate eCommerce sites. This consolidation simplifies purchasing for customers and drives efficiency for the business.
Private Marketplaces as Business Enablers
A common misconception is that a private marketplace is just a digital storefront, essentially an online distributor. Kevin Kazenmayer emphasized that the real value lies in how it transforms a company’s role: “A private B2B marketplace shifts a distributor from just a product supplier to a business enabler. You’re not just selling stuff – you’re creating value.”
Unlike drop shipping models, which rely on razor-thin product margins, a private marketplace generates revenue beyond transactions, from membership fees to premium seller access and even advertising. Plus, by onboarding multiple vendors per category, businesses mitigate supply chain risks instead of depending on a handful of suppliers.
Building a Marketplace That Works
Kevin Kazenmayer shared a few tips for building a successful marketplace: start with a marketplace that offers products your target buyers absolutely need. These are the essentials, the things they can’t operate without.
But having the right products is just the beginning. Your suppliers need the right technology, too – systems that can handle everything from displaying accurate product information and real-time stock levels to processing orders, sending shipping updates, and generating invoices. It has to be seamless.
And for buyers, don’t limit payment options to just credit cards. Many B2B buyers, especially larger companies, need to pay on terms (net 30, net 60, etc.), and they need to connect the marketplace to their existing purchasing systems.
Kevin highlighted what he calls the “trifecta of connected commerce”:
- Punch-out: Letting buyers browse and select items from your marketplace directly within their own procurement software.
- Purchase Order Integration: Automatically transferring orders from their system to yours to reduce manual data entry.
- Invoice Integration: Generating electronic invoices that can be easily processed and paid, combining all purchases into a single, manageable bill.
Technology is crucial, of course, but Sean Last stressed that building a successful private marketplace is primarily about people. He warned against thinking of it as just “another sales channel.” That’s a shortsighted view that’s likely to backfire.
B2B is built on relationships. You can’t just launch a website and expect everyone to magically flock to it. Successful marketplaces, like the one built by Chemdirect, focus on making the entire experience better for both buyers and sellers.
The OMS: Your Marketplace’s “Brain”
Matt Boland introduced us to another critical, but often unsung, hero: the Order Management System (OMS). Think of the OMS as the “brain” of your marketplace. He painted a common scenario on public marketplaces: you find the perfect product, but no single vendor has enough in stock to fulfill your order. Incredibly frustrating!
The OMS solves this. It pulls together all your available inventory (what’s in your warehouse, what your suppliers have on hand, even what’s currently being shipped) and displays it in one clear, unified view. This gives you real-time visibility and allows you to make accurate promises to your customers. Matt explained that the OMS enables real-time inventory calls, so you know exactly what you can offer.
But the OMS does much more than just track stock. It can automatically distribute a limited supply fairly among different buyers (something called “fair share allocation”). It can arrange for direct shipments from suppliers, saving you time and money.
And, perhaps most importantly, the OMS makes it possible to deliver that seamless “one order, one shipment, one invoice” experience that B2B buyers crave. Even if an order spans multiple brands or suppliers, the OMS handles all the complexity behind the scenes, making the process feel effortless for the customer.
Is a Private Marketplace Right for Your Business?
Not every company needs a private marketplace. During a rapid-fire Q&A, the panelists shared their quick tests for evaluating whether it’s a good fit:
Sean Last: If your leadership says, “Let’s launch a marketplace,” ask them, “Who’s responsible for adoption?” If they don’t have an answer, you’re not ready.
Kevin Kazenmayer: Talk to customers. If they struggle to buy from multiple suppliers, a marketplace might solve their problem. If they’re happy with how they purchase today, you might be creating a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.
Matt Boland: Look at your supply chain. If you’re constantly dealing with stockouts and fulfillment inefficiencies, a marketplace with OMS capabilities could transform your operations.
What Comes Next for B2B Marketplaces
So, what’s next for private B2B marketplaces? Our experts predict a shift from more marketplaces to better marketplaces.
Instead of a flood of generic platforms, we’ll see a rise of highly specialized, niche marketplaces, each carefully tailored to the specific needs of a particular industry. They envision “industry-specific vertical private marketplaces” becoming the norm. The companies that approach private marketplaces strategically will see lasting impact.
