By JONAH NWOKPOKU

Recent trends in e-commerce have revealed what appears to be deliberate transition by e-commerce operators globally, from Business to Consumer, B2C to Business to Business, B2B services.

A critical look at this phenomenon has also revealed that this transition is driven not merely by anxiety on the part of the operators to beat competition and deepen profit margin, it has also incidentally become a natural order of progress and expansion for the industry.

Online marketplace is one of the most common ways that the industry has embraced this transition and has indeed been the chief driver.

The implication of this movement is that every e-commerce operator has begun to craft strategic platforms that will accommodate both sellers and buyers on their platforms.

For instance, online retailers like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Konga.com including online classifieds like Online Exchange have all created platforms that not only enables people to buy but to also sell as well.

Recent infographics on marketplaces of some giant retailers like e-Bay and Amazon show that the leading global e-retailers have over 116 to 117 million active users on their marketplace platforms. China’s e-commerce king, Alibaba has over 500 million active users on its marketplace.

In Nigeria, online marketplace like Kaymu.com.ng readily comes to mind as it has provided many Nigerians with its platforms to buy and sell. Online Exchange, Olx has also been offering such services through its online classified platform, olx.com.ng.

Recall also that recently, Nigeria’s online retailer Konga.com launched a marketplace. Over 3000 users have already registered in less than four weeks after the launch. Online e-commerce marketplaces are the primary type of multi-channel e-commerce and it is a type of e-commerce site where product and inventory information is provided by multiple third parties, whereas transactions are processed by the marketplace operator.

In an online marketplace, consumer transactions are processed by the marketplace operator and then delivered and fulfilled by the participating retailers or wholesalers.

It aggregate products from a wide array of providers. This makes selection wider, availability higher, and prices more competitive compared to vendor-specific online retail stores. Industry watchers believe that this trend shows a clear progression for e-commerce. Some others also believe that given the potency of online marketplace in delivering access, it is capable of not only boosting employment, in a place like Nigeria but also contribute significantly to iGDP which is the internet’s contribution to the gross domestic products.

Konga.com’s founder and CEO, Sim Shagaya captured the place of online marketplace succinctly when he joined a panel that discussed Nigeria’s digital revolution at the just concluded Nigerian Summit organized by Economist Magazine recently.

He said Konga wants to make a transition from being just a retailer to becoming a marketplace where every Nigerian could buy and sell.

According to him, online marketplace “is an incredible powerful force that we expect it to probably stem rural urban migration at some point. The sector itself can create a lot of jobs but I think what is really exciting is the platform that it can create in terms of enabling commerce.”

“E-commerce is a big part of the digital revolution,” he said and he believes the industry in Nigeria, nay Africa may not to toe the path of western world e-commerce where it is one giant company called Amazon just buying and selling. He believes that the industry will tend to take the eastern flavor of e-commerce where the largest e-commerce will be a platform for others to trade, buy and sell and get empowered.

“At least this is what we are aspiring to do with Konga.com,” he said.

He also alluded to the fact that online marketplace is capable of contributing significantly to Nigeria’s iGDP, which stands at 1.5 per cent at the moment, according to the data released by Mckinsey & Company, a management consulting firm, late last year.

With this trend clear for operators, it reveals again the huge potential in e-commerce, a critical aspect of the digital revolution. The task before them then, remains consumer education as this will determine whether the marketplace will fare better than core and specific online retailing.