The trillion-level market is bound to attract various leading companies. After several years of development, a number of industrial e-commerce companies that aggregate information and information, system integration, warehousing and logistics, financial services and other industrial services have emerged one after another. Gradually transform from a single online trading platform to an industrial service provider, participating in connecting all elements of the industry. Among them, the industrial product B2B platform relies on the technological advantages of big data, cloud computing, blockchain, Internet of Things, etc., penetrates layer by layer in important procurement links, and the huge development potential of the industry is continuously released, prompting more and more enterprises to enter In the field of industrial products B2B platform, compete for market share.
At this stage, the market competition pattern of the industrial product B2B industry is undecided, but leading companies have emerged. The 36Kr Research Institute has initially divided the industry structure according to the transaction volume of the platform. The transaction volume of the first echelon is greater than 4 billion yuan, the transaction value of the second echelon is between 1 billion and 4 billion yuan, and the transaction volume of the third echelon is less than 10 yuan. 100 million yuan. Enterprises have different backgrounds from all walks of life, and their strengths are also different from each other.
Image source: 36Kr "China Industrial Products B2B Industry Research Report 2020"
Judging from the corporate background of the industrial product B2B platform in the domestic market, it can be roughly divided into four types of platforms.
One is a foreign industrial product Internet procurement platform, such as Gu'anjie. According to the research report issued by Beroe Consulting Agency, the development of industrial products industry in Europe and America is highly mature. The global MRO market exceeded US$600 billion in 2018, and North America and Europe are highly mature markets. The world's top four MRO industrial product suppliers are Guanjie, Europe, Sonepar and Würth Group. Guanjie has strong financial strength, advanced electronic operation platform and more customer resources.
The second is an Internet procurement platform for industrial products transformed by traditional offline traders, such as Zhenkunxing. Zhenkunxing is an agency sales company engaged in chemical products such as adhesives and lubricants, and has accumulated a large number of manufacturing customer resources. In 2014, Zhenkunxing Industrial Supermarket was established, transforming from a traditional chemical product trader to an industrial product e-commerce platform, through digital network collaboration, to achieve transparent and efficient one-stop procurement of industrial products.
The third is the vertical platform of traditional e-commerce in the field of industrial products, such as JD Industrial Products. JD Industrial Products is a one-stop procurement platform for industrial products and an important starting point for JD's industrial Internet business. The JD Industrial Products Platform relies on JD’s long-term digital supply chain to build an intelligent supply chain basic network, and at the same time, through the acquisition of industrial products, the establishment of a "Jinggong Gang" service system, and gradually build a self-reinforcing and positive cycle of "industrial digitalization" New infrastructure" ecosystem.
Fourth is an Internet procurement platform for industrial products transformed by traditional industrial enterprises, such as Yigongpin. Although established in 2019, Yigongpin has developed rapidly in the past two years. At present, there are more than 1,000 team members, of which more than 70% are from the industrial field and the Internet field, and most of them come from the first-tier manufacturers in various vertical fields. Among them, a 100-person selection expert team, per capita has more than 10 years of experience in the industrial vertical field. Therefore, the supply chain constructed by Yigong products is more in line with the real needs of the industrial manufacturing industry. In July 2021, Yigongpin announced that its GMV (total turnover) reached 3 billion yuan in the first half of this year. This means that the company has been in the first echelon in less than two years after its establishment.
These four types of platform companies each have their own growth background and development advantages. In the second half of industrial product B2B, who will emerge suddenly? A survey on the cooperation intentions of hundreds of KA customers (key customers) and Internet procurement platforms answered this question from one side.
Data source: Trinity Research Institute
The survey found that for foreign industrial product Internet procurement platforms and industrial product procurement platforms transformed by traders, the former is due to their deep cultivation in a small field for many years, focusing on professional services, robustness and reliability, and the latter due to their professionalism in products. High, familiar with models, specifications, and parameters. 3% and 13% of KA customers respectively showed willingness to cooperate.
But "foreign" platforms obviously lack domestic resources and do not have cost advantages. During the investigation, a certain KA customer talked about their buying experience and said that when they selected goods on a certain "foreign" platform, they found that although there are more models to choose from in certain categories, most of them are imported The brand, or the high-priced model of a certain brand. As a result, they can't buy the right things at their psychological price, or they can't buy the most cost-effective things. "Platform products seem to be very rich, in fact, customers have no choice."
The "trade-oriented" platform pays more attention to price and often does not control the quality of goods strictly, which has become the biggest bottleneck restricting its development. During the investigation, a certain KA customer reported that they needed a batch of non-standard production materials, and when they saw that a batch of materials were very cheap on a certain "trade-oriented" platform, they placed an order for purchase. As a result, quality problems occurred during use, which directly delayed production and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. Later, I went to the seller to defend my rights. After many communication and coordination, only a few hundred yuan was returned in the end. This painful lesson made customers no longer try Internet procurement easily.
With mature network technology and platform operation capabilities, traditional e-commerce with large network traffic is a vertical platform in the field of industrial products, which is favored by 26% of KA customers. However, these platforms are not familiar enough with industrial products, and their professionalism needs to be improved. This has become the main reason for KA customers' hesitation. In the survey, a number of KA customers reported that they approached customer service to communicate and place orders on this type of platform. Due to professional issues such as industry terminology and specification definition, customer service could not understand the actual needs of customers from a professional perspective, and the communication efficiency was extremely low. In the end, the customer had to give up the purchase.
Finally, look at the industrial product procurement platform with the background of traditional industrial enterprises. The survey found that because this type of platform has been deeply involved in the industrial industry for many years, it understands customer needs, has a wealth of supplier resources, and has strict control over product costs and quality. It is trustworthy and has More than 53% of KA customers prefer this type of platform. However, this type of platform also has insufficient network traffic, only understanding of products in its own field, and barriers to cross-industry development.
Through the above analysis, it is obvious that the industrial product procurement platform with the background of traditional industrial enterprises has more development potential.
Looking forward to the future, the mature industrial e-commerce platform will pay more attention to industrial services, explore more models to increase the added value of platform transactions, and form data circulation throughout the industry chain. In this process, the industrial product Internet procurement platform transformed by traditional industrial enterprises also has natural advantages.
Take Yigong products as an example again. The industrial supplies industry is different from other industries. To bring new value to the industry, it must be empowered at all nodes of the supply chain. The supply chain of Yigong products originated from industry. In the long-term cooperation with many industry giants, such as construction machinery giant Sany Group, the supply chain of Yigong products has been polished many times and finally formed into the full chain of the current supply chain. service system. Its ability has also been verified in many cooperations.
According to the aforementioned investigation, in recent years, due to various factors, many industrial enterprises have faced the problem of supply cut-off caused by structural shortage of steel supply. However, the issue of steel supply has never affected the production and commodity supply of Sany Group. By analyzing industry data and repeatedly comparing the production capacity and demand of its cooperating suppliers and demanders, Yigongpin judges that Sany Group will face a shortage of raw materials when steel consumption peaks. For this reason, Yigong Products communicated with major steel mills across the country in advance, expanded the overall platform supply demand, and avoided the supply shortage caused by temporary transfer of goods. After the steel demand of Sany Group arises, through the rapid docking of the data systems of the two parties, the order process is digitized in all directions, improving the efficiency of plan management, speeding up the turnover of inventory and capital, ensuring the priority supply of steel for Sany Group, and helping Sany Stable production and supply of all business units.
It is precisely because of the full link of Yigong Product that enables enterprises to "weld" the upstream and downstream nodes in series, making it more vertical and short-chain, responding to users' product needs comprehensively, quickly and accurately, and gradually established Highly sticky, positive feedback, and self-reinforcing good industrial ecology. The development ideas presented by Yigongpin provide a path choice for the future development of the industrial product B2B platform.
The industry pattern is uncertain now. The industrial product market is crowded and has not yet emerged from the oligarchs that dominate the industry. With a market size of hundreds of billions, the penetration rate of industrial products e-commerce is only 5%, and this vertical category does not show a high degree of concentration. Even companies currently running in the first echelon still have great room for development. For all competitors involved, the current market is still a promising incremental market, and "rapid growth" will be a topic they need to care about for a long time in the future.