10 Dark Practices by B2B Brands that are Damaging Industrial MSMEs

Overview: MSME units account for 40% of India’s overall Industrial production. Being the spine of our nation’s Industrial economy, this market has attracted numerous online B2B platforms who incorporated substantial improvements to revive MSMEs into a dominant player for supplying raw-materials and machinery across the country. Over the years especially after the pandemic, online transformation has been the incumbent formula, relatively for small Businesses to survive in this highly competitive market. Nevertheless, amidst these trends, trust remains an unwavering element in the B2B sphere. Reputed platforms have strategically capitalized on this trust, aggressively leveraging their capital to establish a monopoly over the industrial market. Here are the 10 most common practices employed by B2B platforms to create disparities and maintain their grasp on this volatile industry.

• 1. Lead Limitation

  Can any third party set a limit to the Leads your Company deserves? Most B2B platforms are obliged to cater their Sellers with Leads completely Based on Packages. Irrespective of the exceptional value your company can offer, it's still tough to obtain new customers due to a fixed quota labeled in your Package.

• 2. Forwarding of Leads

  A typical B2B on the Internet currently confines your Business growth by forwarding the Leads meant for you to your Competitors. This process involves monitoring your Data to prompt for higher memberships otherwise forward your Leads to a High-paying competitor. It indirectly threatens you and benefits only a specific section of High-paying Customers.

• 3. Aggressive Campaigning

  As these platforms employ a huge manpower, they need to cope up with the additional costs. The personnel constantly brag about high-value Leads which are seemingly impractical from the market’s perspective. Consequently, in this process a bulk of fake leads are handed to sellers in the name of pursuing the target. A study conducted by our Team unveiled that the majority of sellers on B2B platforms receive a staggering 90% Fake Leads.

• 4. Internet Monopoly

  These platforms have poured huge amounts in Ad-based methods to assert dominance over search results. SEOs in particular are based on assessing various factors such as Page-traffic, dynamic content, user activity, etc to rank a Website on search engines. An individual seller has less resources to fulfill these criterias for appearing well in the SEOs. As sellers are generally deprived of total control over their profiles, these platforms become the sole option available to gather meager visibility on the Internet. Eventually this monopoly makes innovative features inaccessible to the common sellers.

• 5. Restriction of Opportunities

  Overall every type of business owner in the Industrial Market over-relies on the nature of B2B platforms. Platforms being centralized freely control the flow of Leads to their most privileged customers. Opportunities to the vast section of sellers are scarce as Top sellers pay beyond LAKHS to maintain their everlasting visibility. Often these sellers are overlooked by these platforms and unaware buyers become victims of fraudulent deals by misleading sellers.

• 6. High Loss Potential

  Every single service is being charged heavily on these platforms. Right from registration to Lead-generation, to Customer Procurement, and raising up Visibility, highly volatile charges can sometimes cost LAKHS to small Sellers. Gradually these platforms, once deemed extrinsic to the masses are now the primary expense for an enterprise about a whopping 70% of their income which raises a hypothetical question. Is this much money even worth generating Business?

• 7. Backend Driven Ranking

  Ranking in these platforms is heavily regulated. After all, it's the most concerning factor for sellers when they consider visibility. Our study evaluated that most of the modest sellers are still being lured to join the platform in the name of Visibility to a strong global audience. But in truth, none of these sellers even get the chance of being on the Top Rank. The fundamental aspect of visibility is being deterred and eager sellers have been misguided in the name of BuyLeads. To just reach on Top and come within the vicinity of a curious crowd, a seller has to become a Premium member, buy some Trust Seals and assure themselves of some Business. Maximum attention garnered by the Top-Ranking sellers makes Active Buyers unreachable to eager Sellers. Although primarily this is the necessary strategy to generate most of their revenue, it violates the principles of a physical Marketplace where Buyers can explore diverse sellers irrespective of their background.

• 8. Incompetent Software

  On average, industrial sellers are commonly in the age range of 45 to 60 years. Adoption of IT for their business was still a major challenge until the pandemic era where digitalization was imminent. Although apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Google have taken over this entire base due to their seamless user experience, the current B2B platforms have still lagged way behind in the race. Operating B2B platforms still today is a complete menace to the extent that without manual assistance sellers are never able to manage their profile. Hence, over-relying on abundant manpower and intense centralization have reduced the platforms into mere directories rather than a thriving Marketplace.

• 9. Money Based Promotion

  In a physical marketplace, promoting your business was limited to certain banners, advertisements, and so on. Buyers had to be present in the market, and you had to ensure that the presence of competitors doesn’t hamper your potential sale. Promotions collectively helped the Market to progress and expand its reach within large sections of people. However, B2B platforms decide your existence on the Internet solely based on Money. The Internet is Open to All and is the Cheapest way of Promotion having a huge potential of transforming into a thriving marketplace. Platforms are intensely using their autonomy to extract money from sellers for the audience on the Internet. Though the fact is, with mere assistance anyone can showcase itself without depending on Money Based Promotional methods.

• 10. Hoarding of Data

  As these platforms operate over huge chunks of data, top-tier sellers or even companies acquire the details of ordinary sellers to formulate them with Targeted Advertising. Data Hoarding is a common practice by these platforms to earn from ordinary sellers who refuse to enroll for higher memberships. This is further fueled by the lack of transparency by the backend staff in handling the data stream. Being occupied almost the entire share of the B2B market, these platforms are at the pivotal point in the data landscape where they are assured about data arrival and are free to regulate it as per their intentions.

Today MSMEs still have to deal with numerous challenges to survive in this ever-unstable Industrial market. B2B platforms have utilized this opportunity to create disparities within the B2B ecosystem. The practices I mentioned were derived from incidents faced by ordinary Industrial sellers.

Do you think I missed any practices? What’s your opinion on B2B platforms? We welcome your comments below!

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