During these last few years the B2B e-commerce has experienced remarkable growth in every area: from turnover, recurring income already an increase in the business-to-business purchasesE-commerce has become much more demanding and exacting, and purchasing departments are looking for solutions that allow them to work with the same agility as a consumer shopping on sites like eBay or Amazonwhich remain the best-known marketplaces with the greatest global reach. In this context, a site founded in Germany, with a catalog comparable to that of Amazon or eBayIt has started to generate a lot of buzz in the B2B segment and has become a player that should attract the attention - and concern - of other e-commerce companies.
The German site Crowdfox It announced on July 4, 2017 that its business-to-business platform was experiencing a very significant increase. Sales from their B2B platform They have doubled in recent periods, consolidating the company's growth strategy and confirming the ambitious goals it has had since its inception. This growth is not only due to the expansion of the catalog, but also to a strong commitment to optimization of the purchasing process, improving the user experience and reducing acquisition costs Indirect products and C-Parts.
Crowdfox's B2B platform and catalog growth
According to the statement issued by the company, the range of potential of your products It is increasing dramatically. By the end of its initial phase, this site had a catalog with around 400.000 products available on its website; it currently has 5,7 million items on its B2B platform. Crowdfox's stated goal is to manage tens of millions of references in their business environment, offering depth of assortment and real comparability between suppliers.
"Our B2B platform is growing extremely fast"“By the end of this year, approximately,” said founder and CEO Wolfgang Lang. 20 million products will be available on Crowdfox Business. Our goal is that Crowdfox Business We offer a massive, perfectly structured, and easily comparable product range. We are currently looking for our Top 100 SuppliersThese are carefully chosen based on their operating efficiency, Its delivery processes, its service level and market competitiveness".
Crowdfox was founded in 2013 and went public in 2015. Since then, it has evolved from a marketplace vision to a eProcurement SaaS solution For indirect purchases, focused on large companies and medium-sized companies that want to gain transparency and efficiency in their procurement processes.
How Crowdfox improves the B2B buying process
One of the pillars of Crowdfox is its focus on the quality of the ordering process and the reduction of costs in the purchase of C-Parts (Indirect materials, consumables, low unit value but high administrative impact parts). The company positions itself as intelligent eProcurement platform which not only integrates suppliers, but also structures and standardizes product information.
Based on billions of data records, Crowdfox's SaaS solution assigns each item a Unique Trade Item Number (UTIN®)a unique business identifier that allows you to obtain immediate comparability between all providers of a company's inventory and connected marketplaces. Thanks to this model, a buyer can instantly see Which supplier offers the best price?which one has better availability, Delivery time shorter or better conditions according to different criteria.
With this technology, the systems of Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) They unleash their full potential for the first time: content is normalized, duplicates are eliminated, inconsistencies are reduced, and an environment of best buy realizationIn other words, the selection of the best available purchase option for each product is automatically facilitated without the need for complex manual searches.
Amazon-style user experience in a corporate environment
Beyond data and technology, Crowdfox places special emphasis on the user experienceThe company has identified that many procurement innovation projects fail due to a lack of internal user acceptance: complicated interfaces, slow searches, outdated catalogs, and little transparency.
Therefore, Crowdfox's interface is designed to offer business buyers the same type of intuitive shopping experience that they have when they shop privately online. The platform presents itself as an environment Easy to useWith clear navigation, effective filters, and a feel very similar to shopping on a large marketplace, but fully adapted to the corporate purchasing policies and connected to any standard SRM system.
In addition, Crowdfox has begun to complement its solution with a artificial intelligence chatbot Its own feature, called ChatCFX, assists the user in the process of searching for and selecting products. This intelligent assistant allows formulate natural inquiries, streamline decision-making and further reduce the time spent on low-value administrative tasks within the purchasing department.
SRM integration, cost savings, and referral customers
Crowdfox's solution integrates seamlessly Seamless with SRM systems existing systems within companies, without requiring major changes to the IT infrastructure. This seamless integration allows purchasing teams to continue working in their usual environment while leveraging a optimized content and an advanced comparison engine that increases the price transparency and reliability of the processes.
By centralizing and comparing information from multiple providers, Crowdfox helps organizations significantly reduce costs in the purchase of C-Parts, improve the availability controlaccelerate the delivery times and have visibility on key aspects such as sustainability of the supply chain. In this way, the platform positions itself as one of the leading providers of software solutions for the optimization of indirect purchases.
The company points out that it already works with large international corporationsincluding benchmark clients from top-tier stock indices and large industrial companies, as well as global midsize companies. For Crowdfox, these real-world use cases validate that its eProcurement model enables companies to be more efficient, competitive and scalable in a digital environment where data management and user experience are crucial.
All of this approach—catalog growth, UTIN® technology, SRM integration, intuitive interface, and use of AI—makes Crowdfox a B2B platform that not only competes in volume with the major marketplaces, but also offers a very specific value proposition for business purchases, underpinning sales growth that positions it as a benchmark to follow in the world of B2B e-commerce.