The Bs and Cs of E-commerce
The E-commerce space is rapidly growing very fast, and if you have decided to be a part of this venture, welcome aboard. You might have certain expectations as you start this adventure, and it’s okay to be nervous. But keeping the emotions aside, it is crucial to know how this market works.
In E-commerce platforms, there are certain bodies whose contribution helps in running the forum. All these bodies are interconnected with each other and play an essential role in keeping the businesses flowing.
To understand each relation’s dynamics, we need to look into the functioning of these individual characters.
B2B (Business To Business)
B2B e-commerce is a short form for business-to-business electronic commerce. In B2B, selling or purchasing goods or services occurs between businesses via a wholesale e-commerce portal. It is a commercial transaction between manufacturer and retailer, where everything is processed digitally and increasing the productivity of purchase for the B2B sellers.
This kind of deal happens when-
- A business needs the service of the other company.
- A business source materials for the production process.
- A business re-sells goods and services by others.
B2C (Business To Consumer)
B2C e-commerce stands for business-to-consumers. Often B2C is known as the counterpart of B2B as B2C deals with selling directly to the individual customer. B2C is the most common model used in the market and tends to garner more attention than B2B due to more personal customer experience.
B2C e-commerce has an excellent global reach which makes it more approachable for the customers. B2C e-commerce works as an online store which helps in cutting down expenses of running a physical store. Also, due to its direct access to the customers, it helps in building reliability and trust.
C2C (Consumer To Consumer)
This refers to consumer-to-consumer. It is an innovative platform to allow customers to interact with each other. In this setup, e-commerce provides a service where customers can sell goods or services to different consumers through a third party. The e-commerce site acts as a mediator to help the consumers communicate.
Let’s understand it better with an example. When a consumer posts a product for sale, the other consumer would try to negotiate for purchase. If both parties agree at a price, the deal goes forward, and the e-commerce site would charge a certain amount as fees.
C2B (Consumer To Business)
C2B e-commerce is also known as consumer-to-business. C2B is the reverse model of B2C. In C2B, the consumer creates value, and the business consumes the value. Here, consumers are the ones who offer/sell products or services to companies. E-commerce provides a platform for such an environment, where the consumer can quote the price and accordingly, businesses do the purchasing. One example in C2B is videographers selling their stock videos to firms. Other social media platforms conduct such transactions, but e-commerce websites are more secure and reliable if they are developed by a professional company that specialises in website design.
Conclusion
These business models may be elementary, but they play a crucial role in the business market’s functioning. Sometimes even the simplest things help in achieving the greatest things.
