Procurement Platforms for Consumers

E-procurement platforms have been widely used in business-to-business and business-to-government transactions for many years. More recently, such platforms have become available for consumers as well. However, the question is if such platforms will be as beneficial in a consumer context as they have been in B2B and B2G before. By summarizing recent results from empirical studies and from focus group interviews with platform users, this paper discusses benefits and risks which using e-procurement platforms brings about for the often inexperienced consumer. Current market trends are presented, key obstacles for platform acceptance are identified, and recommendations for future platform development are provided.