E-Business Model

Once a decision is made to develop a business, whom the customer will be is the next decision to be made. Whom will the company target as a customer? Will it be a business? Or will it be a consumer? Business-to-business (B2B) marketing has differences from business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing practices. This paper will outline these differences between the two types of e-commerce business transactions.

In the era of smart businesses, the growth of e-commerce is driven largely by the internet and digital technology, the advent of smart-phones and the increasing disposable income of the people, especially of young working professionals. Moreover, the sedentary work culture and hectic routine life are compelling both consumers and businesses to go online - a revolutionary marketplace to save time as well as money. This is all about B2C companies; there are several B2B portals that assist start-up firms in expanding their reach, penetration and the overall revenue. According to the Forrester Research, B2B e-commerce sales is more than 200 percent of the size of B2C e-commerce and it is expected to touch the $12 trillion sales figure worldwide by 2020. Moreover, If we talk about India only, a study done by Walmart in 2014, tells that India's B2B e-commerce industry will grow to $700 billion by 2020.

The new advances in technology allow businesses to reach different customer bases. This includes buying and selling products over the Internet. The online shopping process is considered e-commerce. E-commerce is made up of different behaviors but for the purpose of this discussion the three discussed are consumer-to-consumer (C2C), business-to-business (B2B), and consumer-to-business (C2B). The different behaviors have different mediums to reach their targeted audience. The message for each behavior persuades a particular audience to purchase a product using that particular medium. Consumers and businesses look to the web for cost-effective ways to sell and buy products.

There is a misconception that e-Business simply means buying and selling products and services over the Internet. The broader view of e-Business focuses on the key processes that directly enhance revenue — namely, customer acquisition and retention through sales, marketing and service (Siebel, 2004). This customer-centric view of e-Business is not limited to the Internet but rather applies to all aspects of the customer relationship whether it is online or offline.

A good example is a children?s clothing store. They must be able to understand what has made their competitors like Carter?s and

Many retailers have expanded their retail market to an online market. Using the internet to sell their goods is known as e commerce. “Ecommerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time or distance” (Network Solutions, n.d.). E commerce has expanded rapidly in recent years due to its convenience for the consumer and the increase in businesses that use electronic retailing (e-tailing). Businesses use different marketing methods in order to reach their customers and attract new ones.

Operating a business has always been reliant on staying on top of emerging technologies. Today, the technology driving a business to success is the Internet, which can be used to buy and sell goods and services. This process of buying and selling online is referred to as e-commerce. E-commerce and its use of the Internet will sell more products, increase revenue, and shape the future of production for businesses. It is also changing how the government regulates online commerce. E-commerce is progressively becoming the way that many people shop and changing the way businesses operate, ultimately changing the world of business.

The traditional method of doing business has always been face to face trading. It is a medium for both customers and businesses to negotiate and purchase and sell goods and services. However, with the progression of the technology age, businesses and customers alike are finding convenience and benefits through the use of e-commerce. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) involves online transactions and the trading of goods and services through the Internet, without time and geographical barriers (Network Solutions, 2014). This could include retail sites, large online music stores such as iTunes or business to business (B2B) transactions between companies. This is a new emerging technology and has brought many advantages (Network Solutions, 2014).

As described by Reynolds, E-commerce takes several forms, including business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), and e-government (e-gov). It’s any type of organization, or that includes the transfer of information across the Internet. It covers a range of different types of businesses, from consumer based retail sites, through auction or music sites, to business exchanges trading goods and services between corporations. It is currently one of the most important aspects of the Internet to emerge (Reynolds, 2016). While there are multiple factors of e-commerce operation for retail interacting with its customers the three primary benefits are effective customer service, convenience, easy and timely efficient orders.

By comparing C2C and B2C transaction value over the pst few years, we can see that B2C has been gaining market share gradually, and will reach about 50% by 2016E.

This is because the relationships that are developed between a B2C business and a consumer are normally shorter in duration than the relationship between a B2B business and their customer (http://www.vista-consulting.com/marketing-articles/b2b-b2c-marketing.htm, 2006).

B2B buying decisions are no longer simple matters that the company president or purchasing manager decides based on long-term loyalty, cronyism or the ability to get a good deal. Customers are following a more complex decision-making process that involves using platform-enabled support services and assessing each B2B company’s credibility, ordering convenience, ability to customize products, social chatter about the company, customer reviews, business ratings and customer service processes for providing quick answers to product questions to assuage increased product skepticism. The authority to make decisions has drifted from single key company officers to multiple business stakeholders and buying committees. However, a classic loyalty-generating strategy still works in the digital environment as well as it ever did in wholesale and retail sales in face-to-face encounters. Offering customers in-house accounts for making B2B purchases offers strong incentives for companies to do business with any given eCommerce platform, and software customizations and automations update this classic practice for the digital age of instant communications.

In two distinct e-commerce business types, Business-to-business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C), there are many differences in the way they operate. Specifically in marketing, differences include how the marketing is driven and the values of the strategies, the size of the target market and length of the sales cycle, and even the buying patterns of the target consumers. Each of these differences will be better defined and explained in the following paragraphs.

The study also introduced a new e-commerce business model in the social media & digital age being the “everyone-to-everyone” or e2e economy. What makes it different from the two major types of e-business (Xu & Quaddus, 2010) being business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) that we have come to know of is the creation of business ecosystems that focuses on the individual customer, the level of customer experience and engagement individual customers expects, the freedom of movement from one seller to another, highly interactive relationship among industry players, the promotion of transparency and promotion of

"B2B also covers e-commerce of goods, services or information between different companies. Therefore, the Business to Business Marketing a very large part of e-business. Commodity exchanges or wholesale deals can be referred to on the Internet as B2B platforms. In addition to trade in goods and their logistics, warehousing and distribution are also part of this business. Overall, these business relations can be held between manufacturers, suppliers, logistics and distribution companies. Companies that are knowledgeable about this marketing, get a cost advantage as for example the cost of purchase can be saved. Even staff and warehousing can be reduced through the electronic communication channels. Many of these