How can a B2B marketplace contribute to companies' CSR policy?
Published on January 1, 1970
What is the challenge of a B2B marketplace ?
A B2B marketplace is a market place, a platform for connecting buyers and professional sellers allowing them to exchange products or services with each other.
Even if the word “ marketplace ” immediately brings to mind B2C e-commerce players such as Amazon, eBay or CDiscount, B2B marketplaces (Amazon Business, Alibaba but also French platforms such as Malt or Agri-Échange) have been growing since several years.
A study by PYMNTS, in collaboration with American Express, even estimates that 80% of transactions between B2B buyers and suppliers could be carried out electronically by 2025! This dazzling success is due to the fact that marketplaces specializing in B2B respond to many current issues, such as the fluidity of exchanges or the possibility of reducing certain costs.
What is the link between B2B marketplace and CSR?
More and more citizens and consumers are taking an interest in environmental issues in the broad sense. Some of the answers to these concerns are to be found in the transformation of our current production and consumption models.
To meet these expectations and participate in the construction of a more sustainable and fairer world, companies have committed to CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiatives.
Building a better and more livable world in the long term
A CSR policy is a process that consists of integrating social, environmental and ethical concerns within an organization's strategy. It will then put in place concrete actions, such as calling on local suppliers, using less polluting materials, digitizing certain internal processes… All this, in order to reduce its overall environmental impact.
Because their primary objective is to save money and streamline certain processes , B2B marketplaces are obviously at the heart of this questioning of our production and marketing methods. B2B marketplaces have all the assets to become credible alternatives to the current dominant model which can be summed up in three words: “produce, consume, throw away”.
With B2B marketplaces , professionals have within their reach an immense and stimulating territory of conquest and experimentation which is fully in line with the CSR approach, and a good number of companies have moreover taken the lead with very innovative projects. in the area of the circular economy and the streamlining of purchasing processes in particular.