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Types of marketplace

Kaplan and Sawhney (2000) developed a taxonomy of B2B marketplaces by applying existing 

classifications of corporate purchasing, namely how businesses buy (systematic purchasing 

or spot purchasing) and what businesses buy (manufacturing inputs or operating resource 

inputs). They identify the types of marketplace shown in Table 7.7. Note that  manufacturing‑ 

 input marketplaces tend to be vertical marketplaces set up for a particular industry such as 

steel, construction or chemicals, while operating resources tend to be horizontal market‑

places offering a range of products to differing industries.

Kaplan and Sawhney introduce another variation in the way mar‑

ketplaces differ. This is according to whether the marketplace is direct 

between buyer and seller or whether some degree of aggregation 

occurs. In the same way that, for consumer products, volume discounts 

can be achieved through combining the purchasing power of individu‑

als, this can also occur for small and medium businesses. Kaplan and 

Sawhney refer to this type of aggregation as ‘reverse aggregation’ since 

aggregation is back through the supply chain from customers to sup‑

pliers. They also identify ‘forward aggregation’ in which the supply 

chain operates through distributors in a traditional way. A distributor 

Part 2  Strategy and applications