‘Team Buying’ providing ‘Purchasing Lifeline’ and price benefits for SMEs
The UAE-based B2B wholesale products marketplace for the Middle East has announced ‘WeMENA Teams’, a regional first, and the opportunity for SMEs to join together and share greater purchasing power.
WeMENA, the growing online wholesale marketplace for businesses, recently announced a regional industry first – Team Buying. The site, which offers thousands of wholesale products, is now enabling SMEs to join forces and benefit from greater purchasing power and cost savings.
WeMENA Teams is another innovation from the UAE-based online wholesale goods platform, which could not only help smaller business survive the pandemic, but give them more purchasing power and increase margins.
Price benefit for ‘Group Buying’
It has traditionally been the case that larger enterprises with greater buying power often purchase such great amounts of a product that they benefit from much lower unit pricing.
Now, WeMENA’s new team buying concept means smaller enterprises will be able to join together via the platform to source and collectively buy bigger amounts of the products they need, taking full advantage of the economies of scale.
The timely new feature comes when many smaller businesses are struggling due to the pandemic.
“This is a perfect time for smaller enterprises, operating in the same sector, to come together, combine their purchasing power, and take full advantage of the convenience of online sourcing, purchasing and supply.
WeMENA is helping to level the playing field so companies based in the UAE (and potentially beyond) can now enjoy similar purchasing power to that of much larger multinationals,” affirmed Pali Banwait, Co-Founder.
Leveraging the power of bulk purchases
Banwait asserted that the team buying concept has been something that has been part of the original plan, and an important part of the business case to achieve its aims of helping smaller businesses grow better.
The group buying concept has proven quite successful on several consumer focused e-commerce plays, especially in East Asia, but the WeMENA initiative is thought to be the first to apply it for an online B2B purchasing platform in the region.
“When you sign up for an account, you will be able to simply invite other potential business buyers into your WeMENA Team to join in on a purchase with you thereby triggering larger discounts due to the increase in purchase volume for a particular product” asserted Banwait.
He cites electronics stores as an example – if a small group of let’s say five non-competing electronics stores join forces to buy gadgets, mobiles, accessories, for example, they will enjoy large discounts on products that can be delivered within a few days.
The B2B platform to offer B2C advantages
The overall aim of the WeMENA platform is to make the B2B buying experience similar to that of a B2C platform which individuals are becoming more accustomed to. WeMENA believes many B2B buyers will start to expect a convenient purchasing experience similar to those offered by B2C e-commerce platforms.
WeMENA is a simple, straightforward gateway that brings bulk purchasers together with reliable, trustworthy manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers. Buyers include retailers, hospitality outlets, offices and the procurement departments of large organisations, a company press communiqué stated.
WeMENA provide sellers with hassle free access to new business customers, while providing them with a reliable payment solution, while handling all delivery logistics and post-delivery customer service issues. Smart AI driven trade credit facilities may also be on the horizon with the pilot testing of the feature successfully completed, the press statement concluded.
