The business to business industry has grown exponentially in the last decade. If you’re not familiar with what B2B sites are, it is a website that allows a business to make a commercial transaction with another. This is usually done when sourcing materials.
China has the highest number of B2B's marketing agencies in the world, followed by the USA, India and Hong Kong.
Below is a list of the world’s top best B2B websites.
1. AliExpress
AliExpress is an online retail service based in China owned by the Alibaba Group. Launched in 2010,it is made up of small businesses in China and other locations, such as Singapore, that offer products to international online buyers. It is the most visited e-commerce website in Russia and was the 10th most popular website in Brazil. It facilitates small businesses to sell to customers all over the world. AliExpress has drawn comparison to Ebay, as sellers are independent and use the platform to offer products to buyers.
2. IndiaMART
An e-commerce company that provides B2B sales and also B2C and C2C via its portal. The Economic Time labeled IndiaMart the largest online marketplace in India and is considered the world’s second largest B2B website after Alibaba. Coming from Uttar Pradesh, no one would have thought to see it as the big beast it has become today. Its revenue in 2014 was more than 200 crore.
Dinesh Agarwal founded IndiaMART along with InterMESH. Renowned as one of the best b2b website the firm currently employees more than two thousand employees in the major cities of India and as 2015, it has claimed to have more than 3 million suppliers listed on the website.
3. eWorldTrade
Fairly new to the B2B industry, eWorldTrade has earned a good enough reputation quickly. A subsidiary of Reckon Media LLC, a firm that provides digital media and technological services, based in the US. eWorldTrade itself has its operational unit around the world.
It is the only B2B marketplace currently offering up to 10 leads free of cost when you sign up to it. This has been a huge selling point for businesses, and this can be seen through its fast growth in only a few years. Most of its manufacturers are from China however, it also has businesses from the USA, India, Malaysia, and Pakistan partnered with it.
Due to its main operational unit being based in Pakistan, the platform has become a part of CPEC and will benefit greatly due to this in the future. Lowest wholesale rates and fast delivery can be easily expected from eWorldTrade.
The website has especially affected smaller to medium businesses that failed to gain recognition on previously known best b2b websites operating within Pakistan.
4. Made-in-China
Another popular & one of the best B2B websites you must’ve heard of. It was developed and is operated by Focus Technology Co., Ltd. From the country of China; it is a leader in the industry of electronic business. All their products are either made in China or Taiwan.
However, Made-in-China has had a few issues when in 2007 the US, Canada, Australia and the European Union issued recalls on a broad range of Chinese-made consumer goods.
Yet, it remains one of the most successful websites in the world for business to business sales.
5. GlobalSources
Global Sources is a Hong Kong-based e-commerce company that is also registered with NASDAQ and GSOL. It is quite an old player with being founded in 1970 by Merle A. Hinrichs and C. Joseph Bendy as Trade Media Ltd.
Global Sources has grown tremendously this year and has more than 1 million international buyers currently housed under it. Global Sources has an incredible B2B sales strategy and is the reason why it has lasted so long in the game and continues to grow each day. At the end of 2012, the revenue of this B2B online marketplace was $231.7 million.
The selling point of this platform is that it verifies the quality of the manufacturer, a service very few other platforms provide. Along with that, Global sources also has specialized shows around the world that bring buyers and suppliers face-to-face in a quality environment.
6. DHgate
A leading wholesale website for good manufactured in China, DHgate is a must try. It has a pretty consistent record of quality services and products and offers rates that cannot be found elsewhere. Again, it is a Chinese company but also supports the English language.
Like eWorldTrade, DHgate also facilitates manufactured products from small and medium-sized business owners. It provides a safe international payment and logistics service. Although its headquarters are located in Beijing, China, it has a number of offices around the world including countries such as the USA, the UAE, Philippines, and India.
Something we don’t get to see everyday is that DHgate was formed a woman, Diane Wang, who was also one of the founders of Joyo.com. She has also served as Country Marketing Director of Cisco Systems. In 201, the company claimed to have over 1.2 million Chinese suppliers and 10 million buyers from 200+ countries.
7. TradeIndia
As the name says, it is an Indian company with its head office in New Delhi. It currently has over 3 million registered users and serves as one of the best b2b website operating globally to buy products made in India and trade globally. From Home décor, agriculture to machinery, Trade India surely has a huge variety of goods.
It is a portal specifically for small businesses in India. Founded in 1996, by Bikky Khosla, it has grown to have branch offices in over 35 cities and employees over 1200 professionals.
It basically functions as an online directory service to the global export-import community.
It currently has over 12,000 product categories and subcategories. Along with being in the B2B industry, Trade India has organized events and has also been associated with Google as their premier SME partner.
8. iOffer
An online marketplace quite similar to Amazon and eBay on which you can pretty much buy and sell anything just like its slogan, “A Place to Buy, Sell & Trade,” says.
Created by Steven Nerayoff, iOffer is a San Francisco based online trading company. It was launched in 2002.
The website has earned its reputation of being one of the best b2b websites through its claims to have one million users including about 75,000 sellers. A unique feature on this site is that it allows free listing of items for sale and charges them only when they are sold or for premium listing services. The difference between iOffer and eBay is that it offers little in the way of buyer and seller protection from frauds.
9. ECplaza
Due to its B2B leads, the portal has grown to No.1 Trade Leader providing online and offline services to over 1,000,000 members.
It was created by Inkyu Park, in 1996 and is a South Korea platform.
It is probably the best b2b website that is full of trade leads, product catalogs, and company directories. The portal offers quite a few languages like English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
ECplaza has had slow but consistent growth over the years and has today build a worldwide network and high brand recognition for itself. ECplaza is a safe online wholesale mall for international trade.
10. ECVV
One of the best B2B websites in the world, ECVV was founded in 2003 with the mission to facilitate global trade more efficiently. One of the several companies from China that have become masters and dominate the world business to business sales. ECVV is a pretty reliable platform to purchase from. It provides global buyers current and quality information on suppliers and products and packages.
It is the first end-to-end procurement service platform in China and is a major international trade promoter. The annual trade volume on ECVV is estimated to be $5,000 million.
By the end of 2009, it had over 2,000,000 registered users and received 800,000 buyers from 200+ countries.
11. Fibre2Fashion
While most renowned best B2B websites seem to be selling everything, Fibre2Fashion has maintained its focus on, well, fashion. It was built with an aim to bolster and serve the textile fraternity. The portal currently offers analysis reports, business solutions, magazines and much more along with their products. It is a fantastic business to business marketing place for buyers all around the world. The website is Indian and thus features mostly Indian suppliers. However, the quality is impeccable.
Since its birth in 2000, it has consistently been growing leaps and bounds.
12. ExportersIndia
Last but not the least is, ExportersIndia.
The website was incepted in 1997 and is owned by Weblink.In Pvt Ltd., currently. Like a few companies in this list, ExportersIndia is from India as well, if you couldn’t tell by the name.
It offers full support in the English language and has its headquarters in New Delhi, India. It is the largest searchable & one of the best B2B websites for variety manufacturers, exporters, and importers, suppliers, etc. It also has an app available for Android phones on Google Play.
However, it is a website that must be used with caution. Recently, quite a few reviews have spoken against it.