IoT Analytics shared an insightful report on the rise of B2B software marketplaces. It underlines the shift from a direct sale model to software marketplaces.
Why is that excellent news for IoT providers?
Marketplace offers several opportunities from the buyers’ perspective, including:
- choosing and comparing solutions from various vendors,
- low entry barrier (subscription instead of a significant upfront investment),
- out-of-the-box working solutions (short time-to-verification and -market).
Challenges
The marketplace model promotes subscription-based offerings. Why is that a challenge for vendors (and a gain for the customers simultaneously)?
Buyers can try various solutions before investing substantial capital in one vendor. They may purchase several products, validate their functionalities, and use the one that suits their business needs.
Why is that a challenge for solution providers? It will be harder to monetize poorly designed and developed products. Customers will not make a significant investment upfront and “vendor-lock themselves”.
Opportunities
What is a challenge for low-quality companies creates an opportunity for less-known vendors. If you offer a high-quality service/product, the B2B marketplace is a chance to thrive. Design your solution to fulfill a specific business need, automate as many processes as possible, and adapt your enterprise to the subscription-based income.
Let me know if you can use my support in designing and implementing that approach!
