| E-commerce |
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| Digital content |
| Retail goods and services |
| Online shopping |
| Mobile commerce |
| Customer service |
| E-procurement |
| Purchase-to-pay |
| Super-apps |
There are many types of e-commerce models, based on market segmentation, that can be used to conducted business online. The 6 types of business models that can be used in e-commerce include: [1] Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Consumer-to-Business (C2B), [[B2B e-com), and Consumer-to-Administration
B2B e-commerce refers to the sale of goods or services between businesses via an online sales portal. [2] While sometimes the buyer is the end user, often the buyer resells to the consumer. [3] This type of e-commerce typically applies to the relationship between producers and wholesalers; it may additionally remain applied to the relationship between the producers or the wholesalers and the retailers themselves. [2] However, the same relationship can also occur between service providers and business organizations. [4] B2B typically requires more venture capital and a longer sales cycle, but results in higher order value and more recurring purchases. [3] [5]
As newer generations become decision makers in business, B2B ecommerce will become more important. In 2015, Google found that close to half of B2B buyers were millennials—nearly double the amount reported in 2012. [3]
Examples of this model are ExxonMobil Corporation, the Chevron Corporation, Boeing, and Archer-Daniels-Midland. These businesses have custom, enterprise ecommerce platforms that work directly with other businesses in a closed environment. [5]
The advantages of B2B e-commerce include: [6]
The disadvantages of B2B e-commerce include: [6]
Business-to-consumer (B2C), or direct-to-consumer, is the most common e-commerce model. It deals in electronic business relationships between businesses—both producers and service providers—with end consumers. Many people like this method of e-commerce as it allows them to shop around for the best prices, read customer reviews, and often find different products that they would not otherwise be exposed to in the physical retail world. This e-commerce category also enables businesses to develop a more personalized relationship with their customers. [2]
Anything one buys online as a consumer is done as part of a B2C transaction. The decision-making process for a B2C purchase is much shorter than a business-to-business (B2B) purchase, especially for items that have a lower value, thus having a shorter sales cycle. B2C businesses therefore typically spend less marketing dollars to make a sale but also have a lower average order value and less recurring orders than their B2B counterparts. B2C innovators have leveraged technology like mobile apps, native advertising and re-marketing to market directly to their customers and make their lives easier in the process. [3]
Examples of B2C businesses are everywhere: exclusively-online retailers include Newegg, Overstock.com, Wish, and ModCloth. Major B2C-model brick-and-mortar businesses include Staples, WalMart, Target, REI, and Gap. [5]
The advantages of B2C e-commerce include: [8]
The disadvantages of B2C e-commerce include: [8]
Consumer-to-business (C2B) e-commerce is when a consumer makes their services or products available for companies to purchase. [2] The competitive edge of the C2B e-commerce model is in its pricing for goods and services. This approach includes reverse auctions, in which customers name the price for a product or service they wish to buy. Another form of C2B occurs when a consumer provides a business with a fee-based opportunity to market the business's products on the consumer's blog. [9]
For instance, food companies may ask food bloggers to include a new product in a recipe and review it for readers of their blogs. YouTube reviews may be incentivized by free products or direct payment. This could also include paid advertisement space on the consumer website. Google Adwords/Adsense has enabled this kind of relationship by simplifying the process in which bloggers can be paid for ads. Services such as Amazon Affiliates allow website owners to earn money by linking to a product for sale on Amazon. Examples of C2B include: a graphic designer customizing a company logo, or a photographer taking photos for an e-commerce website. [2]
The C2B model has flourished in the internet age because of ready access to consumers who are "plugged in" to brands. Where the business relationship was once strictly one-directional, with companies pushing services and goods to consumers, the new bi-directional network has allowed consumers to become their own businesses. Reductions in the cost of technologies such as video cameras, high-quality printers, and Web development services give consumers access to tools for promotion and communication that were once limited to large companies. As a result, both consumers and businesses can benefit from the C2B model. [9]
The disadvantages of C2B transactions are that one must be well-versed in web design to create such a website and the amount of money earned is far less than what could be earned by selling the mortgage directly to the consumer instead. [10] The advantages of C2B can be expressed through an example: The C2B website thefreemortgagecalculator.com offers a LendingTree advertisement at the top of the page. The advantage of this website is that the owner does not have to sell mortgages, meet with customers, or pay for everyday business operation expenses in order to make money. If the LendingTree advertisement is used by a visitor, the website owner gets paid a commission from LendingTree for the lead. [10]
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C), or customer-to-customer, represents a market environment where one customer purchases goods from another customer using a third-party business or platform to facilitate the transaction.
In this case, the third-party platform typically earns their money by charging transaction or listing fees. [11] [3] These businesses benefit from self-propelled growth by motivated buyers and sellers, but face a key challenge in quality control and technology maintenance. [3] Another customers’ benefit is the competition for products. Customers may often find items that are difficult to locate elsewhere. Also, margins can be higher than traditional pricing methods for sellers as there are minimal costs due to the absence of retailers or wholesalers. [11]
Opening a C2C site takes careful planning. [5] Examples of C2C include Craigslist and eBay, who pioneered this model in the early days of the internet. [3] Generally, transactions in this model occur via online platforms (such as PayPal), but often are conducted using social-media networks (e.g., Facebook marketplace) and websites (Craigslist). [2]
The advantages of C2C include:[ citation needed ]
The disadvantages of C2C include:[ citation needed ]
Business-to-administration (B2A), also known as business-to-government (B2G), refers to all transactions between companies and public administrations or government agencies. Government agencies use central websites to trade and exchange information with various business organizations. [1] This is an area that involves many services, particularly in areas such as social security, employment, and legal documents. [2]
Businesses that are accustomed to interacting with other businesses or directly with consumers often encounter unexpected hurdles when working with government agencies. Layers of regulation can harm the overall efficiency of the contracting process, and thus, governments tend to take more time than private companies to approve and begin work on a given project. [12]
While businesses may find that government contracts involve additional paperwork, time, and vetting, there are advantages to providing goods and services to the public sector. Government contracts are often large and more stable than analogous private-sector work. A company with a history of successful government contracting usually finds it easier to get the next contract. [12] One example of a B2A model is Accela, a software company that provides government software solutions and public access to government services for permitting, planning, licensing, public health, and so on. [1]
Consumer-to-administration (C2A) e-commerce encompasses all electronic transactions between individuals and public administration. The C2A e-commerce model helps the consumer post their queries and request information regarding the public sector directly from their local governments/authorities. It provides an easy way to establish communication between the consumers and the government. [1]
Examples of C2A include taxes (filing tax returns), health (scheduling an appointment using an online service), and paying tuition for higher education. [2]
E-commerce refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. E-commerce is the largest sector of the electronics industry and is in turn driven by the technological advances of the semiconductor industry.
Marketing is the act of satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of business management and commerce.
Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. A period during which goods are sold for a reduced price may also be referred to as a "sale".
Distribution is the process of making a product or service available for the consumer or business user who needs it, and a distributor is a business involved in the distribution stage of the value chain. Distribution can be done directly by the producer or service provider or by using indirect channels with distributors or intermediaries. Distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix: the other three elements being product, pricing, and promotion.
Disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in economics from a supply chain, or "cutting out the middlemen" in connection with a transaction or a series of transactions. Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediary, companies may now deal with customers directly, for example via the Internet.
Database marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses databases of customers or potential customers to generate personalized communications in order to promote a product or service for marketing purposes. The method of communication can be any addressable medium, as in direct marketing.
An online auction is an auction held over the internet and accessed by internet connected devices. Similar to in-person auctions, online auctions come in a variety of types, with different bidding and selling rules.
Business-to-business is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when:
A business can use a variety of pricing strategies when selling a product or service. To determine the most effective pricing strategy for a company, senior executives need to first identify the company's pricing position, pricing segment, pricing capability and their competitive pricing reaction strategy. Pricing strategies and tactics vary from company to company, and also differ across countries, cultures, industries and over time, with the maturing of industries and markets and changes in wider economic conditions.
B2B e-commerce, short for business-to-business electronic commerce, is the sale of goods or services between businesses via an online sales portal. In general, it is used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a company's sales efforts. Instead of receiving orders using human assets manually – by telephone or e-mail – orders are received digitally, reducing overhead costs.
Business marketing is a marketing practice of individuals or organizations. It allows them to sell products or services to other companies or organizations, who either resell them, use them in their products or services, or use them to support their work.
Industrial marketing or business-to-business marketing is the marketing of goods and services by one business to another. Industrial goods are those an industry uses to produce an end product from one or more raw material. The term industrial marketing has largely been replaced by the term business-to-business marketing (B2B).
An online marketplace is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a way to streamline the production process.
Guided selling is a process that helps potential buyers of products or services to choose the product best fulfilling their needs and hopefully guides the buyer to buy. It also helps vendors of products to actively guide their customers to a buying decision and thus increases their conversion rate.
Consumer-to-business (C2B) is a business model in which consumers (individuals) create value and businesses consume that value. For example, when a consumer writes reviews or when a consumer gives a useful idea for new product development then that consumer is creating value for the business if the business adopts the input. In the C2B model, a reverse auction or demand collection model, enables buyers to name or demand their own price, which is often binding, for a specific good or service. Inside of a consumer to business market the roles involved in the transaction must be established and the consumer must offer something of value to the business.
Business-to-employee (B2E) electronic commerce uses an intrabusiness network which allows companies to provide products and/or services to their employees. Typically, companies use B2E networks to automate employee-related corporate processes. B2E portals have to be compelling to the people who use them. Companies are competing for eyeballs of their employees with eBay, Yahoo and thousands of other web sites. A huge percentage of traffic to consumer web sites comes from people who are connecting to the net at the office.
In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms refer to a supplier of any goods or service. In property sales, the vendor is the name given to the seller of the property.
Customer to customer markets provide a way to allow customers to interact with each other. Traditional markets require business to customer relationships, in which a customer goes to the business in order to purchase a product or service. In customer to customer markets, the business facilitates an environment where customers can sell goods or services to each other. Other types of markets include business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C).
Tmall, formerly Taobao Mall, is a Chinese-language website for business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail, spun off from Taobao, operated in China by Alibaba Group. It is a platform for local Chinese and international businesses to sell brand-name goods to consumers in Greater China. It has over 500 million monthly active users, as of February 2018. In the last few years, it has opened its features to brands, not only for online sales but also for developing brand awareness. According to Alexa Rank, it is the third most visited website globally in 2021.
Business-to-many or B2M is a marketing term for a business that sells their goods or services to other businesses as well as to consumers. Unlike B2B firms that only engage themselves with other businesses or retail firms (B2C) that only contact consumers or the end users of the product, B2M firms do both. It is important to understand that just because an organization does B2M marketing, this does not mean that they target their products and services to everyone. B2M companies, like any other type of company, have a more specific target audience.