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Returning customers, stable revenue
In retail, customer loyalty is rare. Consumers easily switch shops or brands, and companies have to keep fighting for attention and spend more and more on acquisition. B2B works differently, though. A customer once won becomes a partner for years, and recurring orders build stable and predictable cash flows.
It is this recurrence that makes the food industry one of the most interesting areas for digitalisation. Restaurants, bakeries, small processing plants – they all buy regularly, in fixed cycles, creating a market with huge potential and exceptional appeal for investors.
In B2B, customers buy cyclically because they have constant production needs. This makes revenue more predictable, and the relationship with the supplier becomes long-term. It is this recurrence that builds the kind of stability that is hard to find in retail.
Alex PaciorkiewiczFounder & CEO, Foodcom S.A. & FDCM
Mid-volume trade – an untapped “blue ocean”
For years, the market’s attention was focused on retailers and large wholesale contracts, while mid-volume trade went practically unnoticed. These are orders that fit neither the B2C consumer model nor classic B2B wholesale – too big for an online shop, yet too small to involve traders or sales teams.
For many companies, this segment was inconvenient and unprofitable, so it remained on the margins. Yet it was precisely here that Alex Paciorkiewicz, the founder of Foodcom S.A., saw an opportunity to create a new category. After years of building a position in global commodity trading, Paciorkiewicz decided to seize the gap the market had ignored for decades and develop FDCM.eu as a platform for mid-volume trade.
It is an undiscovered blue ocean. A segment that was off the radar for years and could now generate the biggest growth in B2B e-commerce.
This means that the segment is becoming one of the drivers of digital transformation in the food industry, opening up a space with billion-złoty potential.
Digitalisation is changing the rules of the game in B2B
Digitalisation is today one of the most important drivers of growth in the global economy. According to a Strategy& (PwC) report, the value of the Polish e-commerce market will exceed PLN 187 billion in 2027, an increase of more than PLN 94 billion compared with 2021. The online channel’s share of retail sales will then reach almost 17%.
So far, categories such as fashion, electronics and health and beauty have gained the most. Food is still lagging behind, but in the coming years it will be catching up and become one of the main beneficiaries of digital transformation. Simpler purchasing processes, automated customer service and lower costs translate directly into business profitability.
In B2B, digitalisation not only reduces costs but changes the way entire industries work. Processes that once took weeks and required the involvement of salespeople are now completed in a few clicks.
The sector is at an early stage of transformation, which makes it possible to join the trend before it is fully developed.
Network effects as a natural barrier to entry
One of the key phenomena in digital B2B models is the network effect. The more customers use a platform, the more attractive it becomes – both for new users and for suppliers. Over time, a self-reinforcing mechanism emerges in which every new company increases the value of the whole system.
In practice, this means it becomes increasingly difficult for competitors to enter such a market. A customer that has integrated its purchasing processes with a given platform is reluctant to change it. That would require extra costs, time and reorganisation of work. As a result, once a critical mass of users has been reached, it becomes a natural barrier to entry.
Companies built on the network effect have the potential to maintain a stable position in the long term. Once the customer base exceeds a certain threshold, competitors’ market share gradually shrinks, regardless of their financial resources.
Why is this market worth watching?
Digitalisation is changing trade in many industries, but it is in B2B that it has the greatest potential for long-term growth. Stable cash flows from recurring orders, the mid-volume niche and the network effect are turning transaction platforms into a new business category that the capital market is starting to notice.
FDCM.eu is an example of a business that is taking advantage of this trend and creating a solution that addresses a real gap in the market. Combining a digital model with the mid-volume segment shows that high-potential projects can emerge even in an area previously considered difficult to develop.
It is a company that is a natural beneficiary of the digital transformation of B2B and one of the more interesting investment stories in the near future.
