Business-to-business (B2B) is the process of commercial transactions between businesses. This can range from transactions between a manufacturer and a wholesaler to a wholesaler and a retailer. One specific area where B2B differs from B2C is in the volume of transactions. The reason for this being that B2B transactions involve raw materials, subcomponents, etc, therefore the number of transactions is higher. For example, a business that assembles and sells desktop computers will make several B2B transactions such as buying motherboards, hard disks, casings, monitors, etc, in order to assemble a computer. The final transaction in this process is the sale to the consumer, a single sale which is also known as a B2C transaction. B2B e-commerce sites typically deal with purchase of services, products, or materials. They sometimes operate an auction platform which helps dissipate excess stock.
In the past, the term “business-to-business” was used to describe electronic communications between businesses or enterprises. Eventually this term permeated the marketing world and generally denoted industrial or capital goods marketing. In today’s terms. it describes all products and services that are used by an enterprise.
Business-to-consumer (B2C), as described earlier, is a single transaction. This is generally a retail transaction done after a product has reached the end of its supply chain. The structure of B2C sites differ clearly from B2B sites in that they are more accessible to the end consumer and typically involve a search function, product catalogue, and purchasing function. Some sites require a membership to access products. This approach enables the business to track customer orders and collect data on customer purchasing behaviors.
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