Building trust in a marketplace ecosystem

Founded in 2014, Equippo is a global marketplace for used construction equipment.

On a mission to transform the process of buying and selling used construction equipment globally, Equippo has facilitated transactions to over 140 countries, establishing a network of 130,000+ buyers and sellers.

Equippo is a one-stop solution for the heavy machinery industry by offering an end-to-end online marketplace, online auctions, and innovative Fleet Solutions web-apps. Headquartered in Switzerland, Equippo has offices in Germany, France and The Netherlands, to empower the construction industry to become more efficient and sustainable.

122

Established

15

Countries

130,000+

Network users

Equippo’s challenge

A significant challenge for Equippo emerges in the traditional buying and selling process for used construction equipment. Buyers express the need to physically inspect machines before making payments. This creates a broken, inefficient traditional market, since very few transactions happen without the buyer traveling to see the machine at the sellers premises. Oftentimes unqualified agents visit the seller prior to payment just to verify that the goods exist, even without addressing the technical condition. Trust and payment are huge problems that contribute to an extraordinarily high level of market fragmentation.

Equippo changes this. Through detailed inspection reports, photos and test videos, buyers can buy online without traveling or using such agents. However, for online sales, many buyers still hesitated to send a pre-payment without seeing the machine while sellers expect upfront payment before delivering the machines.

Tackling these challenges internally has shown to be daunting, as it requires time and resources and diverts their attention from their primary business activities. Eventually, Equippo searched for a reliable partner with proven expertise to carry out the B2B payment process without hassle.

The solution

Sprinque’s Magento 2 plug-in offers a streamlined and efficient integration process. With the personalized support of a dedicated account manager from Sprinque, the onboarding and integration process went smoothly and the issues were resolved promptly. Upon the integration, QLF Brands is able to extend flexible payment terms to their business buyers and provide a seamless B2B experience across regions like they accomplished in the B2C sector.

With Sprinque’s wide buyer geographic coverage, QLF Brands can now service all their buyers with a single provider, allowing them to optimizie their operational effort. Moreover, with Sprinque’s high buyer acceptance rate (93%), QLF Brands gains trust and favour from a wide range of business clients.

Another unique value that Sprinque brings to the table is the ability to process invoice automatically while maintaining top-notch security. Sprinque’s robust fraud screening mechanism provided an additional layer of security, safeguarding transactions from potential risks and reduced manual efforts. This allows QLF Brands to navigate the challenges of B2B sales in multiple geographies with confidence and reach operation efficiency.

The buyer is not the person who pays

In most companies (especially those with more than 10 employees), purchasing is done by procurement, while payments are made by the financial department.

Accounts payable processes

Finance processes usually require invoices to be uploaded to the ERP or accounting system for payment. This process can take anywhere from 7 - 30 days after purchasing.

Cash flow management

Businesses like to be able to first sell their products, before having to pay their suppliers. Or at least have some flexibility.

Results

Equippo now meets buyer expectations for physical inspections and secure transactions and has more resources to focus on its global growth. Upon the first month of integration, 25% of all deals involved Sprinque, and a month later, Sprinque already covered 77% of all transactions on the Equippo platform.

25%

Sprinque covered deals

in the first month

77%

Sprinque covered deals

after one month

An Example

Bill from South Africa, who runs a specialized rental company providing mining operators heavy equipment in the North Western province, had long been wanting to benefit from the lower European price level but struggled to find an easy and trustworthy way to purchase from Europe. Once he had the import permission in place, he was able to order a suitable unit in a direct online transaction from a French rental company, via the Equippo marketplace. It was as easy as checking the shipping rates on Equippo’s website, placing an online order and selecting Sprinque as his payment option. Now, Bill is able to enjoy the benefit of a lower price point, and can pay easily after physically inspect his orders.