Small businesses – those with fewer than 50 employees -- made up two-thirds of all B-to-B spending from direct merchants on the Abacus B2B Alliance. At $2.7 billion, they outstripped by far what large businesses (just over $1 billion) and medium-sized firms ($331 million) spent.
Large companies – the ones with more than 100 workers -- are swinging some weight of their own, however. While their aggregate purchases may not total what small firms spent, at $287 per purchase they nearly doubled the $162 per sale of small businesses, and even left mid-sized firms, at $238 per transaction, in the lurch.
Which types of companies were doing the buying? Heavy industry, primarily. At $1.3 billion, this was the largest single category, making 30% of all purchases. It was followed by business and legal services (20%); finance and insurance (14%); health (11%); retail and restaurant (10%); education (9%); and government (6%).
Despite making up a small slice of the total pie, when government spends, it spends big. The average purchase made by government firms was $281, followed by education ($232); heavy industry ($212); business and legal ($193); finance and insurance ($192); health ($186); and retail and restaurant ($157).
What are they buying? Well, the order sizes may vary, but across the board they’re spending the most on computers and furniture, which were far and away the two categories with the largest order size. Much further down the scale were ad specialty buys. Beyond that, large firms spent heavily on uniforms, safety equipment and miscellaneous items, while mid-sized companies were most likely to purchase uniforms, cards and stationery and safety items. Small companies tended to buy cards and stationery, uniforms and safety equipment, in that order.
The Abacus study evaluated purchase data for transactions made during 2003 and 2004. The report analyzed actual purchase data, combined with company information from Dun & Bradstreet.
