Business-to-business
(B2B) e-commerce is characterized by the growth of electronic marketplaces
and online auctions. This growth of the dynamic-pricing buying and selling
at goods and services other than a list price has coincided with the growth
of electronic product catalogs that make it possible for prospective buyers
to peer into a supplier's inventory system.
B2B e-commerce
produces electronic marketplaces in vertical industries, where businesses
can request for bid or bid for what they want from among multiple suppliers.
These verticals need not be related to computers and electronics. Even
heavy industry is increasingly turning to Internet auctions and online
stores to move surplus equipment and commodity merchandise.
Now, you
can easily develop and participate in B2B e-commerce directly on your own
website. With B2B Vertical Marketplace Creator, you can develop online
marketplace for any industry such as Semiconductor, Computer, Medical or
Telecommunication, allow related suppliers and corporate purchasers to
be linked together, and to conduct business-to-business level trading directly
on your website. You will be able to use the easy-to-use web-based tool
to design any B2B vertical, based on your own industry and its sub-categories.
Your registered suppliers can post their company links, products, and services
directly through the web browser. Interested members can browse and search
for supplier company sites, as well as services and products offered by
them, either through auction or fixed price selling in their respective
selling community, such as online auction house or online store.
As System
Administrator, he can manage all registered suppliers and purchasers through
the web browser, monitor the posting goods and services in the online marketplace,
as well as design a vertical marketplace
and sub categories of the vertical.
Product & Supplier Search
Engine
In the
product and company supplier search engine, registered member can search
for products and services posted by suppliers, based on the keyword. If
‘Fixed Price’ is selected as product format, only those ‘fixed price’ goods
and services will be displayed. ‘Fixed price’ goods and services are sold
in suppliers’ online stores at their list prices. “Auction’ goods and services
are listed by the suppliers in their respective auction houses and have
their ending dates of the offering. ‘Other’ is product format which may
include service quotation or wholesale goods which prices are determined
by the quantity of the order.
Clicking
on the Product Name hyperlink will be connected to the product site as
specified by the supplier. The site could be the auction site or online
store, which sells the product or service at the fixed price.
Supplier
link is the home website of the supplier where interested buyers can visit
the site for information of more products and services.
The format
column lists auction, fixed price or other format of the specific product,
as indicated by the supplier during the product posting.
In the
price column, the products could be in dynamic pricing if they are in Auction
format, due to the bidding activities on the current active auctions in
their respective auction house. If it is in ‘fixed’ format, the product
is selling at its list price.
Only the
ending date of products in Auction format will be displayed. A normal auction
should run from 2 to 14 days.
By searching
for specific company based on the company keyword, the search engine will
list out all relevant companies or suppliers who have signed up with the
marketplace system. Clicking on the hyperlink of the company will be connected
to its home website where an interested buyer could find more products
or services as provided by this company.
Add Product/Service
Click on
Add Product/Service link to add a new product or service.
After you
have logged in as a register user (note that log in name and password are
CASE SENSITIVE), your user name will be detected by the program
and displayed automatically on the supplier name section.
Type in
the product or service name in the field provided that you are going to
list in the marketplace.
Make sure
that the Supplier Website URL is correct so that your interested buyer
will be connected to your website for more company, product or service
information.
Also type
in the product or service URL in the field. The URL could be your online
shopping cart link of that product, or auction item hyperlink which will
be linked to the current (active) auction site of that specific item.
Select
the format of the product or service: fixed price, auction or other format.
If you select ‘Fixed Price’ for your item listed in your online store system,
you will not be required to type in the ending date. If you select ‘Auction’,
you will need to type in the ending date of the auction so that your potential
buyer can bid on this item from your auction site, before the auction closing
time. Note that the date must be in [MM/DD/YYYY] format, such as 12/25/2000.
Click on
‘Post’ button when you finished, and the program will save all data into
the MS Access database in your web server. The next screen will be a new
entry form for your next product or service.
Click on
‘Home’ link if you would like to go back to the marketplace home page.
Registration
All new
users are required to register as a member before they can become the marketplace
suppliers or users.
Type in
your unique User ID, valid email address, and password inside the fields
provided. Note that the email should be valid for contact purpose.
Fill in
your company name and website address (URL), which will be displayed in
the search and list result.
Contact
person is the person who is in charge of the sales and customer service.
Address and phone number are essential for correspondence purpose.
After you
have completed the registration form, click on ‘Register’ button to submit
the form. The system will automatically approve this registration and allow
you to begin using the marketplace system.
Administration
Administrator
of the marketplace will be required to log in to the administration section.
Note that
all login user ID and password are CASE SENSITIVE. This is applied
to the login of all other registered user. Please make sure that you use
the proper lower or upper case of your ID and password.
Remove User
To remove
existing registered users from the database, please check on the relevant
box and click on ‘Remove’ button. This will remove the selected users permanently
from the database.
You will
be able to monitor the existing user registration information by clicking
on the hyperlink of each user ID. Click on the email link will enable administrator
to contact the registered user by email.
Remove Product/Service
To remove
unwanted current or expired products or services, check on the relevant
boxes and click ‘Remove’ button to remove them permanently from the database.
Note that
administrator should always come to this section and remove all completed
auction item from the database. This will avoid the completed auction items
to be searched out by the registered user, through the search engine.
All auctions
and fixed-price items will be sorted out in this section. The upper section
will be auction listing. The ending date of the expired auction item will
be displayed in Red color so that administrator can recognize it and remove
it from the database.
Editing Banner
The banner
will be displayed in the marketplace home page and category pages.
Type in
your company banner URL (such as http://www.mysite.com/banner.gif)
and click on ‘Edit Banner’ button will save the data and displayed your
own company logo or banner at the top of each marketplace web pages.
Editing Industry
Industry
name will be displayed at the top of category list. This is the industry
name of the vertical, such as Software, Semiconductor, Transportation,
etc.
All the
categories will be related to this industry name.
Adding New Category
You can
add a new category to your existing categories for your specific vertical.
Type in
the new category name and click ‘Add’ button to add to the category list.
Modifying Existing Categories
Below is
a sample category list for ‘Software’ industry.
You can
edit the category name directly, and click on ‘Change’ button to update
the category list. To remove unwanted category, simply erase the existing
category name, and click on ‘Change’.
Note that
once you erase the unwanted category name, all products or services which
are listed under this category will be removed from the database permanently
as well.
Changing Administrator Password
Administrator
will be given the default login ID and password. However, he can edit and
change the ID and password in this section, which is recommended.
Type in
the original administrator ID and old password in the fields provided.
Then type in your new ID and new password, and confirm the password in
the fields as well. Click on ‘Change’ button to update your new ID and
password in the database.
‘Exit’
the administrator website, and click on ‘Admin’ link to login with your
new administrator ID and password to access the administration section.
