Electronic business is often defined as a business which relies on an automatic system of information. This means that one conducts his businesses with the use of a technology such as the internet.
Electronic business is pretty handy nowadays. Business men make use of the internet in order to communicate with their customers as well as their business partners. This is very useful because it saves time travels and it makes negotiations possible even abroad. Internet proved to be a great help to us especially since it helped solve the problem of costs of long distance communication. Internet also made communication a whole lot easier and faster and it is mainly through this that business minded people saw the value of business through the internet.
The conveniences of the use of the internet are also one of the prime assets which business men found on this automatic system of information. There are two categories from where electronic business falls; Business to Consumer and Business to Business. Supply chain differs considerably from a Business to Consumer (B2C) site as compared to a Business to Business (B2B) site. For one the difficulty level between the transactions of a B2B as compared to a B2C are very different.
As the name implies Business to Business sites conducts transactions between a business and another business. Business to the consumer on the other hand, conducts transactions between a company or a business and a consumer. Business to consumer is a term used for a company which transacts business through the internet by selling things or services to a customer online. Lots of people do their shopping via the internet. E-bay is one example of a business which is conducted through the internet.
The customers would only have to go online to select and buy their purchases. Business to consumer is more often described as on-line selling, trading, and the like. For example if I want to trade my Porsche car for a Chevrolet all I have to do is go on-line and conduct my business there. Businessmen as well as consumers do their interaction and deals electronically through the internet. Another example of a business to consumer site is Amazon. com.
Amazon. com does their retailing online and thus it is the perfect example for a Business to Consumer site. B2C business makes use of tactics of finding possible prospects and then tempting and converting them into becoming a customer. The main aim of a B2C is to make people into buyers insistently and constantly as is possible.
The B2C makes use of the internet as the medium of information. For example as a customer I am looking for a certain CD signed and owned by the actor Orlando Bloom. All I have to do in order to get hold of that CD is to make my order online, give the specifics I want to be included in my CD and the like. The payment is also done online and so it is very convenient for me as a customer.
There are numerous kinds of services under the business to consumer site. Such services may be found on online stores, online services and auction stores. Business-to-business on the other hand refers more to the exchange of goods, services, and the like from one business to another. There are views that business-to-business sites would exceed the revenue of the Business-to-Consumer sites soon. There are many forms of Business-to-Business websites. Such are company websites, product supply and obtainment exchanges, specialized industry portals, brokering and information sites.
Company websites aims to garner the interest of other corporations or companies as well as their employees. Company websites serves as means to enter an exclusive extranet which are made available for the registered users of a particular site. One may wonder what an extranet is. Extranet is often defined as a classified network which makes use of the internet as a form of telecommunication system in order to share information with other businesses, suppliers and the like. Extranet is said to be a part of the intranet of a certain company, thus extranet opts for security as well as for privacy.
Product supply and obtainment exchanges on the other hand deals with companies who wants to buy materials from sellers, or to bid to obtain purchases at a more desirable price. Specialized industry portals, however, deals with giving information, discussion groups and others of the same sort. Brokering sites is pretty useful in acting as a bridge for those who wants to buy certain products and for those who would be able to provide the said product. Information sites are also useful in that they give information about certain businesses and their workers.
The aims of Business-to-business sites are a whole lot more complicated as compared to that of business-to-consumers site and thus B2B sites often make use of this reason in order to excuse their inferior usability. However, such an excuse is not really valid because they should give more empathy on their usability since there is a much greater need for their user interfaces. Businesses made under B2B are also more important as compared to the B2C because on B2B sites the consumers are not just opting for goods such as dress, bags, etc. The customers on B2B sites are buying something with a long-term consequence.
Most B2C users are buying products which they would use for themselves or as gifts for relatives and friends. Thus, customers on B2C sites often decide alone, use their own money and suffer the consequences of their purchase on their own. However, such is not the case on customers of Business-to-business sites. Since the B2B sites handles more complex matters it only follows that their clients decides not on their own but rather with a group of people or department. Also, whereas transactions made on business-to-consumers sites opt for security, transactions made on business-to-business sites requires more negotiations, bargaining with each other and the like.
Thus the strategies used on Business-to-Business sites are more often not suited to be used on Business-to-Consumers site. It is important that even though B2B and B2C are forms of marketing they still have their own set of differences which would make us better off if only we notice how important those differences are. It is a completely different thing to buy something for your self and it is another to buy product for a company. Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumers are terms created in order to tell apart those businesses who deals with other business from those businesses who deals with plain consumers.
The kind of program used in marketing between B2B and B2C are somehow alike however, they way these marketing programs are executed and their outcomes are completely different from each other. One similarity of B2B to that of B2C is in terms of identifying their customers and in providing them with reasons on why they should support your products. But their similarity ends there. Business-to-Business differs on many aspects to that of Business-to-Consumers. Some of their differences are that wherein a B2B site is driven more by the kind of relationship it would create, the B2C sites is more driven by the products they could produce.
B2B gives prime importance to the value of relationship whereas B2C gives prime importance to the value of a deal. Also, whereas B2B focuses mainly on small prospective markets, B2C focuses more on larger prospects. Thus, it only suffice to say that Business-to-Business is more complex as compared to that of Business-to-Consumers and the products they are advertising has more deeper meaning and focuses on more subtle things than the products themselves, thus, it only follows that B2B should offer and promote better services for their clients and they should not make the complexity of their marketing as an excuse for the way their sites usability works poorly. Reference: Center for Virtual Organization and Commerce. Business-to-consumer E-Commerce[Electronic Version].
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