B2B e-commerce platforms

Selling to other businesses, from electronic parts to the product data every shop needs

Think back to your final-year project. You needed 20 resistors, a microcontroller and a sensor, and you had to find the right part numbers among thousands. Somewhere, a company sold you those parts online, in small quantities.

That company was selling to a business, or to an engineer buying for one. Much of commerce is between businesses. The industry calls it business-to-business, or B2B:

the distributor selling electronic components to engineers
the manufacturer selling to wholesalers, the companies that buy in bulk
the wholesaler selling to shops
the raw-material supplier selling to the small factory

B2B has moved online more slowly than shopping. Orders are large, prices are negotiated, and the catalogues are enormous.

Buying for yourself and buying for a business: a business order is large, its price is negotiated, and its catalogue can run to millions of parts, which is why B2B has moved online more slowly than shopping.

This Market Segment covers the marketplaces, the distributors and the software of B2B selling.

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.

This Market Segment has one sub-segment.

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The marketplaces, the distributors and the software

The marketplaces, the distributors and the software

Back to the parts for your final-year project from the start of this Market Segment. The first company here is the kind that sells them.

Mouser Electronics

with engineers in Bengaluru and Pune, has the most job postings in this Market Segment. It is a distributor: it buys electronic components from their makers, and sells them to engineers around the world. Its catalogue of millions of parts is sold online, in small quantities. (More on the components themselves in Market Segment 37.6, Connectors and industrial sensors, in Industry Vertical 37, Manufacturing tech.)

The next companies help brands and manufacturers sell to other businesses, and keep their product data in order.

Pattern

with engineers in Pune, runs brands' sales on Amazon and other marketplaces for them. It handles the listings and the pricing. It also protects the brand against unauthorised sellers, who sell its goods without permission. (More on the marketplaces in Market Segment 26.1, Online marketplaces.)

Syndigo

with engineers in Bengaluru, and Unilog manage product information. Manufacturers send millions of product descriptions, images and specifications to retailers and distributors, and this software keeps them in order. Unilog also sells distributors their online store.

The next three companies sell software for the wholesale and distribution trade.

WizCommerce

with engineers in Bengaluru, sells wholesalers a platform for taking orders and showing catalogues.

PhaseZero.ai

sells product search for industrial distributors.

Vxceed Software Solutions

sells software to consumer-goods companies that sell to India's small shops, the neighbourhood kiranas. Its software runs their sales teams and their distributors. (More on consumer-goods companies and the shops they sell to in Market Segment 27.4, Shelf monitoring and retail execution platforms, in Industry Vertical 27, Retail tech.)

The last three companies help businesses find each other and buy from each other.

Power2SME

with engineers in Bengaluru, buys raw materials for small manufacturers, and finances their purchases. It also appears in Market Segment 18.2, SME and business lending (in Industry Vertical 18, Lending and credit).

ICE Global ECommerce

runs an online marketplace and a virtual expo for sellers. A virtual expo is a trade fair held online.

WiftHub

with engineers in Delhi, runs a marketplace for finding suppliers.

The B2B chain runs from makers to distributors and wholesalers to shops, engineers and small factories. Syndigo and Unilog keep the product data in order, Pattern sells for brands on marketplaces, WizCommerce, PhaseZero.ai and Vxceed serve the distribution trade, WiftHub and ICE Global ECommerce help businesses find each other, Power2SME buys raw materials for small manufacturers, and Mouser Electronics is a distributor selling online.

The catalogue that describes itself.

B2B selling is held back by product data: millions of parts, with specifications in formats that don't match. AI models now read the manufacturer's datasheets and write the listing. They match a buyer's description to the right part, and they answer the engineer's technical questions. The distributors that use them are moving buyers from phone and email to the web. For your final-year project, that means describing the sensor you need, and getting the right part number back.

That is selling to other businesses: large orders, negotiated prices and enormous catalogues, slowly moving online.

Who they hire

Who these companies hire, and for what, is on What e-commerce and D2C brands companies hire for.

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