U.S.-based shipping giant UPS has announced a new blockchain integration aimed to bring business-to-business (B2B) sales into the digital age.

Announced yesterday, UPS has inked a deal with e-commerce company Inxeption to develop a platform to facilitate business-to-business sales, one supported by blockchain technology. The platform, called Inxeption Zippy, will work as an online catalog for businesses, according to the UPS news page.

UPS said that the integration of services is aimed to draw more B2B merchants into e-commerce, claiming that slow adoption of online selling resources directly impacts businesses that use traditional methods for selling and advertising.

In order to help clients go digital, the platform will walk merchants through the step-by-step process of setting up an online site for the company, listing its products and achieve sales to other businesses using contract-specific pricing.

Blockchain technology will play a role in the offering of services for scheduling and monitoring shipments, as well as in transactions, purchase orders and financing record tracking on the Zippy platform. While merchants will be able to pay with credit cards, no other means of payment such as cryptocurrency was mentioned in the announcement.

The solution was inspired by the growth of B2B e-commerce, Kevin Warren, chief marketing officer for UPS commented, explaining that “B2B buyers expect the same fast and convenient shopping experiences that consumers enjoy.”

The platform will additionally provide marketing services such as search engines, sales reviews and analytics.

While the B2B e-commerce market is set to reach $1.8 trillion by 2023, according to Forrester research, most B2B products are still sold through direct sales and/or third-party distribution, says UPS.

Farzad Dibachi, CEO of Inxeption, said:

UPS van image via Shutterstock