BUYER’SCHOICE The push and pull of online marketplaces AT YOUR SERVICE: XaaS Whether or not online marketplaces have become more important to any given provider or partner go-to-market strategy, it’s highly likely that the marketplace model, among other digital distribution strategies, has become more important to their customers’ technology acquisition strategies. And moving forward, marketplaces are only going to be more important to both the buying and selling process. Nearly three-quarters of IT channel firms surveyed by CompTIA, for instance, acknowledged that more customers today are using marketplaces for their initial purchases. “To deny the impact of marketplaces would be folly,” said researchers at CompTIA in its recently released annual IT industry outlook. “Today, online marketplaces, such as those from Amazon and Google to Microsoft and Salesforce, have become the direct, go-to option for many tech purchases in today’s cloud era,” said the report. “Everything from hardware devices to SaaS applications and beyond is available at the click of button for customers today.” The good news is, despite notions that online channels can lead to a sense of “displacement from the sale” for channel firms, research suggests a marketBy Martin Vilaboy 46 CHANNELV ISION | MARCH - APRIL 2022
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4Njc=