Anheuser-Busch InBev, or AB InBev, a multinational drinks conglomerate headquartered in Belgium, is keeping the ecommerce party going.

AB InBev is one of the world’s largest beer brewers by both volume and sales, generating $15.12 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2023. That’s up 7.2% $14.79 billion and operating more than 500 beer brands in 150 countries. The company says it generates more than half its revenue through its B2B digital platforms.

A growing digital sales channel is BEES, AB InBev’s B2B marketplace. AB InBev launched BEES in 2020 as a global B2B marketplace as a new digital sales platform for small businesses.

“Everything we’ve done in developing BEES has been for the benefit of our retailers because when their businesses thrive, we thrive,” says Nick Caton, chief B2B officer at AB InBev. “The success we’ve seen over the past three years has proven that offering small business owners around the world technology, business skills education, and financial services (such as credit and digital payment options) drives profitable growth for retailers, partners and AB InBev.”

AB InBev’s BEES marketplace GMV

In the second quarter ended June 30, BEES generated gross merchandise volume of $340 million. That’s up 40% from GMV of $265 million from Q2 2022. The number of active marketplace buyers grew year over year by 15%. That’s up to 3.3 million from 2.9 million in the prior year.

“BEES marketplace continued to expand, reaching over 700,000 customers,” says AB In Bev. That’s a 29% increase versus Q2 2022, and growing GMV by 64%.

BEES also embeds financial services into the platform. It allows credit to be granted more widely and with lower risk by applying machine learning and other algorithms to better assess credit worthiness, and by educating users on how to improve their credit scores, the company says. BEES now has over 500,000 users leveraging short-term credits to use for their weekly purchases and reduced wait times for a loan from an average of two weeks to hours.

“We want to change the experience for retailers, improve transparency and enable them to grow,” said Angela Sanchez, vice president, BEES and FinTech, AB InBev. “By digitizing payments and credit distribution we’re making it safer and more scalable for our network of small and medium-sized business owners.”

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