One year after the launch of CIITrade, the online B2B marketplace, the service is now gathering momentum reaching out to the stakeholders.

M ake in India, one of the most ambitious campaigns of Prime Minister Modi, has given the much needed impetus to the Indian manufacturing sector that had suffered from the twin blows of global recession and policy paralysis experienced during the closing months of the previous government. In addition, facilitators like Digital India, which came into sharp focus due to the government’s demonetisation move, also revealed the need for a credible platform that will not only be a complete solution, but also provide a level playing field for all the stakeholders ranging from large global corporate to the smallest of SMEs.

UK based cloudBuy has been doing precisely this, helping customers since 1999, with a complete e-commerce platform with demonstrable benefits. Now in a tie-up with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), cloudBuy services are available to Indian businesses at CIITrade.in, a truly transnational Business to Business (B2B) platform. The rationale is to promote fair business practices through this not for profit, non-competitive initiative, where CII is not an intermediary to any transaction, but just a facilitator. With the involvement of other fulfilment partners like financial institutions and logistics and other services in a transparent manner, this platform will also help compliance with the government policy of large corporates buying from MSMEs and micro enterprises (at least 20%) and ensure payment with 45 days, thereby empowering this vital segment that contributes to the GDP in significant way. cloudBuy has a strategic partnership with Visa Asia Pacific for secure payments.

The cloudBuy advantage

So what exactly does cloudBuy bring to the table that is not already available through the various trading platforms? Well, for a beginning, cloudBuy is not a portal of catalogues where hundreds of companies offer thousands of products for prospective users to check and compare. As to what it is, cloudBuy is a provider of technology platform for ecommerce with focus on B2B segment, with products offered in SAAS model. Unlike other portals offering e-commerce services, cloudBuy actually has the necessary enterprise solutions and technology tie-ups in place to offer a seamless experience from having a look at the product to completing the purchase and documentation without leaving the platform. With operations spanning 10 countries, cloudBuy has provided marketplace technology in different regions all over the world to government, private and trade associations to drive their marketplace. Also cloudBuy is not a typical ecommerce company. For example, a bank is using cloudBuy marketplace technology platform to create a marketplace in South East Asia.

Various other attributes of cloudBuy can be highlighted as follows:

1. cloudBuy has expertise and capabilities to develop robust platforms for B2B trade across the globe
2. It is an advance platform which can connect with the procurement systems of large corporates, handle B2B integration, at the same time provide them with very simple user experience to Buyers and Sellers
3. Offers complete control of posting products, price and images of the products, edit as and when required, receive purchase orders and RFQ directly and connect with Buyers, and
4. E-commerce based simple user experience to buy from a large database of products and with detailed profile of suppliers, with capability to execute end to end transaction
5. Buyers get more access to sourcing opportunities and be able to send RFQ to more suppliers for their Buying
6. Access to finance and other fulfillment partners like logistic providers and other services, and
7. Standard products, consumable project buying, etc., can be done and justify cost savings to their companies.

Visitors on cloudBuy

So who are the users or visitors on such a technology platform? Says Nilesh Gopali, cloudBuy Country Head – India, “Buyers on CII marketplace are specialised ones like Procurement Managers, Head of Sales and Marketing, CXO Professionals, etc., and not consumers; more importantly our suppliers also act as a Buyers – something that we envisaged and experienced in our global marketplaces.”

Nilesh cited a recent example of a supplier who undertook an offline transaction with cloudBuy support to procure a specialised instrument worth around Rs 11 lakh, although the procurement itself was meant for buyers stationed outside India. Thus a supplier behaved as Buyer in this case. “As the name suggests, CIITrade.in – Gateway to Global Supply Chains – our focus has always been on cross border transactions and B2B products,” adds Nilesh.

Market response & achievement

A lot of deliberations have gone into the creation of the CII e-marketplace built on the secure cloudBuy platform, which is ISO 27001 and PCI DSS Level 1 certified. Now one year after the roll-out, the response has been overwhelming, with the market openly accepting this platform, with more than 45,000 products and about 1000 suppliers registered for trading on this platform. “We recently commenced a new initiative to onboard 1000 industrial suppliers within a short time. We intend to undertake more of similar projects to on-board between 1000-10,000 suppliers, every time onboarding them in short period of time thereby increasing ‘content’ – both suppliers and their products,” says Nilesh.

The most attractive part of cloudBuy is that it is not just an out-of-the-box solution. In fact it is very much a solution ‘in-the-box’ – as simple as taking something out of the box and plugging it for use – the users actually can start just by logging in like for email or other online activities. And this does not cost a bomb. Subscription is as low as Rs 20,000 for a year and transaction charges as low as 4%, making it easily affordable even to the smaller businesses.

The way forward

However, there is still the need to promote this initiative on larger scale. Unlike the more visible B2C portals, CIITrade.in has preferred a calibrated roll-out with promotions of this initiative through events via its 64 centres in India and 9 abroad. It is about reaching out to the SMEs and MSMEs in Tier II and Tier III cities, while at the same time getting large corporates and institutional buyers to do their possible buying on this platform. The benefits have already been demonstrated as in UK where the National Health Service and universities are using the cloudBuy platform, with substantial savings accruing in the process.

In the meanwhile, the outreach continues, and last heard, the Gujarat government has entered into an agreement with cloudBuy to develop a B2B marketplace for small and large business units in the State. So it is not just about one marketplace like the CII initiative, there can be many such marketplaces at the state and regional level, and even sector specific portals customised to specialised needs.

To sum up, what cloudBuy brings to the table:

1. One stop shop – anything and everything for multi-vendor, multi-buyer ecommerce marketplace
2. Marketplace-in-a-box: ready to roll out in short span
3. Tried and tested ebusiness technology
4. Experience with management team having deep B2B experience
5. Global reach for buyers and sellers through our existing marketplaces and relationships, and
6. Local and global partnerships to leverage in.