Online B2B Marketplaces Help Even Established Multinationals Accelerate Global Growth

Modern B2B marketplaces are helping reshape how even entrenched industry giants operate and scale.

This, as Kraft Heinz Co. Monday (March 20) announced it would use beverage giant Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (AB InBev) B2B BEES eCommerce platform to strengthen its international footprint in Latin America, with a particular focus on gaining share across the Mexican, Colombian and Peruvian markets.

“Emerging Markets are key to our growth strategy,” said Rafael Oliveira, executive vice president and president of international markets at Kraft Heinz, per a press release for the partnership. “To be successful in countries like Mexico, we have to use technology to increase sales force impact, and we believe BEES is poised to be a game-changer for us … allowing us to customize our approach on a market-by-market basis serving the needs of regional retailers.”

“The nature of the market in LatAm is very particular in each country, and we are bringing in a partner that will help the sales team to expand its growth potential,” added Bruno Keller, president of Latin America at Kraft Heinz, when reached for comment by PYMNTS.

Since its creation in 2019, the BEES eCommerce platform has captured more than $32 billion in gross merchandise value across 20 countries and counts 3.1 million monthly active users across its distribution network.

Kraft Heinz is planning to leverage the digital B2B marketplace to increase the number of its products available to Latin American retailers and grow its distribution footprint to a stated goal of one million new points of sale across the region.

Following the initial marketplace launch in Colombia, Peru and Mexico, Kraft Heinz plans to expand into Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Panama, among other countries.

See Also: The AP/AR Quick-Start Guide: How All-In-One Payment Platforms Can Transform B2B Transactions

PYMNTS has written previously about how an emergent blend of FinTech advancements, future-fit payment platforms and dynamic, next-generation B2B marketplaces are increasingly offering businesses large and small new opportunities for critical operational and relational transformations across both industries and borders alike.

As it relates to the Kraft Heinz and AB InBev partnership, Kraft Heinz is looking to tap the BEES B2B marketplace platform to let small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) across Latin America, including regional grocery store chains, foodservice organizations, and small “mom & pop” shops, browse, order and stock its products at the click of a button.

The BEES platform provides partner businesses and business customers with a one-stop shop to place orders, earn rewards, arrange deliveries, manage invoices, and even access data-driven operational insights.

By digitizing sales and leveraging existing BEES platform infrastructure, Kraft Heinz hopes to realize efficiencies in serving SMBs.

“Together we’re accelerating digital transformation and helping local businesses thrive,” said Nick Caton, chief B2B officer at AB InBev.

New research in the March 2023 PYMNTS report, “Digital Payments: Modernizing Procurement Processes,” a collaboration with Corcentric, reveals that businesses throughout the economy are increasingly leveraging digital platforms to increase B2B opportunities that can ensure their future success.

Digital Marketplace Platforms Are Driving a Fundamental Shift in B2B Payments

B2B payments are growing increasingly digital as they take their cues from broader consumerization of the B2B marketplace, with enterprise relationships undergoing a transformation as modern cross-border solutions continue to supplant error-prone, slow and expensive legacy methods.

PYMNTS has been tracking the rise of digital B2B marketplaces across various industries, and nine in 10 SMB owners surveyed in PYMNTS’ “AP/AR Quick-Start Guide,” a collaboration with Plastiq, report that all-in-one payment platforms for B2B transactions can save time and drive third-party convenience.

Companies behind those platforms are building them out with digital tools like machine learning (ML) algorithms that match buyers with sellers and offer dynamic pricing capabilities, automated invoice reconciliation and foreign exchange (FX) support, along with other digital-first solutions that take aim at historic frictions.

One side effect of the ongoing rise of digital platforms is that to successfully transact across these next-generation B2B platforms, businesses need to be able to adequately interact with them — which often requires upgrading or modernizing various elements of their own systems or processes.

In this way, B2B marketplaces are spurring a further acceleration of the digital journey for businesses across borders and industries, with payments at the center.

After all, digital tends to be a one-way street. Once an enterprise locks in, they rarely look back or return to the old way of doing things.

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