11/30/2020

What Is Electronic Procurement, E-Procurement?

E-Procurement (Electronic Procurement)

E-Procurement is the automation of an organization’s procurement processes using Web-based applications. The purchase transaction steps and procurement process is captured electronically and routed automatically to reduce the time and cost. 


What Is Mobile Commerce, M-Commerce?

M-Commerce (Mobile Commerce)

M-Commerce is commonly understood as the usage of mobile devices for business purposes such as smartphones or tablets.

The Main Features Are

  1. Location independence.
  2. High availability.
  3. The power of mobile devices
  4. Interactivity
  5. Localization
  6. Accessibility
  7. Personalized

What Is Supply Chain Management (SCM)? How Supply Chain Management Works?

Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services and includes all processes that transform raw materials into final products. It improve a business's supply activities to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Supply Chain Management attempts to control or link the production, shipment, and distribution of a product. By managing the supply chain, companies are able to cut excess costs and deliver products to the consumer faster. Supply chain management is based on the idea that nearly every product that comes to market results from the efforts of various supply chain.

SCM can help to manage, The plan or strategy, The source (Raw materials or Services), Manufacturing, Delivery, and The Return.

Supplier relationship management (SRM) is the discipline of strategically planning for, and managing, all interactions with third party organizations that supply goods and/or services to an organization 

The objective of SRM is to maximize the value of those interactions. In practice, SRM entails creating closer, more collaborative relationships with key suppliers in order to uncover and realize new value and reduce risk of failure.


Supplier relationship management (SRM) systems provide Purchase governanceContract management, and Supplier collaboration.

Solutions and Strategies for Better Relationships

1. Partnership should be based not only on financial transactions, but also on mutual trust and loyalty. 

2. Use supplier management software to keep track. 

3. Timely payments are crucial, making sure to pay them on time. Software solutions like AP automation can help you easily match payments with invoices and reduce errors.

4. Detailed agreements. If you are buying from a vendor on a regular basis, Supplier Relationship Agreements are a must. 

5. Think global, treats like local. Every city, state or country has different rules, laws and terminology. 

6. Get everyone onboard.



 

Bloggering & Youtube

Social Bookmarking is the act of storing and organising online resources, such as web pages, blogs, and videos, so they can be shared amongst an online community. Social bookmarking sites are designed for you to find great information online that already exists.


Examples

  1. Digg.com – popular web pages are “dugg” by approving viewers to increasing their rating and exposure in Digg.com. Those with the most diggs rank at the top for the category in question.
  2. Delicious.com – people store and share their tastiest web bookmarks.
  3. Alltop.com – headlines from the most popular blogs and websites on the net are sectioned into categories for easy retrieval by busy browsers.


Blogging

Blog is derived from the term “web log”.

It is an online journal with a series of posts. 


Example

WordPress is the most popular blogging software online and for good reason. 


Benefits

A blog is the most universally beneficial of all forms of social media, will provide you with a crash course in the fundamentals of internet marketing.

The Content Marketing and SEO sections

Linkbait - Blogs are very linkable.

Personality – For conveying not only the personality of the business but also the personalities of the individuals that make up that business. 

Expertise


Top tips for blogging

By incorporating your blog into your site rather than using an external platform like Tumblr, blogger or WordPress.com, you will not only benefit from the direct traffic but also any links pointing to the blog. This means having your blog on mysite.com/blog rather than mysiteblog.com.


Unique

You need to make yours stand out. 


Guest blogging

Develop relationships.


Keep it real

Talk using language the reader can understand and never over-sell yourself. 


Learn Basic HTML Have a play with it here(http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_primary.asp)


Speed

When something big is going on in your industry, you need to get your piece of the action while it’s hot. Post up to cater for the people that will be making related searches that day.


Internal linking

When you blog you want to ensure there are links in your post that encourage people to navigate to other pages on your site so they don’t just bounce back to the SERPs.


Measure, Google Analytics

Which posts are attracting the most traffic? Why might that be and can you write more information around the subject?


Write title tags with searchers in mind

To generate traffic from the Search Engines will be its title.


YouTube and online video

Authenticity

Real content from real people. Users value video content highly.


Spread

Published the video on YouTube, Facebook Fan Page, LinkedIn profile, and blog.

 










Reference

Pateman, N. & Holt, D. (2011). Inbound marketing. Bookboon.





Pay Per Click advertising on Facebook

With Pay Per Click advertising on Facebook, here are some tips


  1. Use multiple ads can help you to find the best one.
  2. Change the adverts more regularly. Facebook users may get bored with seeing the same message all the time.
  3. Set an appropriate landing page to match the message in your advert.
  4. Try different keywords.


Things To Avoid

  1. Targeting multiple interest categories with the same ad
  2. Using bad pictures, or long sentences.
  3. Testing too few ads

11/29/2020

Harness Social Media to Encourage Business Success

Introduction

According to Oyza and Edwin (2015), social media has proven to be more effective than more traditional marketing methods. It has disrupted marketing as Apple disrupted the smartphone and personal computer industry. So, how savvy businesses can harness social media to encourage business success? What are the challenges they face? That's what we are trying to find out.


How Savvy Businesses Can Harness Social Media to Encourage Business Success

In the past, before the widespread use of social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, new brands and startups have to work very hard on advertising and it's costly. Now, by SEO(Search Engine Optimization) and social media network interactions, businesses have a wise choice to build their empires. 


Brands can now use these platforms to interact directly with existing and new customers for their goods and services. In order to interact with more customers easily and cheaply. As a result, they grew business partnerships, reduced marketing expenses, improved search rankings, increased traffic, provided marketplace insight, and developed loyal fans.


The top two benefits of social media marketing are increasing exposure and traffic and more exposure and traffic means more people know your brand. However, you must publish fresh, relevant information regularly for your target customers. Video is an excellent platform for building customer relationships, as it not only gives brands the chance to create more powerful stories. Channels such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter have the functionality to upload videos. When it comes to boosting web traffic to brands' sites, video content is increasingly important. If customers have already viewed one of the videos about a brand, they are more likely to visit its website.


However, simply boosting web traffic is not enough to guarantee an increase in sales. Brands have to do something more attractive if they want consumers to become return purchasers and build a long term relationship. Engage online audiences friendly. The positive perceptions will translate into sales and loyalty. Great branding, must be simple, different, and safe. Popular brands today have simple and easy to remember logos and should have their own level of uniqueness for it to be able to stand out from similar products or competition in the market. Also, remember to choose appropriately without offending any particular culture. 


What Are The Challenges They Face? 

As mentioned earlier, simply boosting web traffic is not enough to guarantee an increase in sales. Brands have to do something more attractive if they want consumers to become return purchasers and build a long term relationship. 


Social media is just a great tool and platform for anyone to use, but just like every devil was once an angel, marketers now have to rethink the way they communicate with potential consumers. Freedom is one of the factors that render social media marketing unpredictable and uncontrollable since people all free from expressing their thoughts. Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships.


When companies join the social channels, they can communicate with consumers directly and consumers can also interact with them. However, the challenge is, how or when should we do these interactions? Not everyone has the same favorites, the same schedule, and the same background. So, how can we attract as most customers as we can? That's where solutions like Google Analysis come in, helps us to do some comparison, and more likely to achieve our targets, goals, and objectives. 


After all, not everyone likes being marketing a product directly. It's boring and it's more likely to be resisted. But if you sell them a dream, a story, a belief, or even just a feeling, it is more acceptable.


How Do Businesses "Keep Up" in Such An "Changes so Rapidly" Environment?

Trust is hard to build but easy to lose. Only presence is not enough, businesses still need to do the basics to maintain their successful social media presence such as publish fresh, relevant information regularly, be positive to enhance their sales and loyalty, doing researches and analytics, optimization, and monitoring the results.


Although not everyone likes the same product from the same brand, customized brand marketing still gives brands the opportunity to win some great feelings. Instead of selling them your products directly, sell them feelings, stories, and dreams. Instead of just spend the money to get a boost in sales, businesses now have to build long-term relationships with their partners and customers. Adapt the trends quickly in real-time is one of the keys to win the marketing game. Despite social media can boost your views faster than ever, they still can destroy you faster than ever before. Remember the Volkswagen emissions scandal? The scandal being shared all around the world and destroy people's trust in the automobile brand. 


Now, marketers have also been given the opportunity to better understand their consumers directly from the thoughts and views expressed by them, but they still need to fully understand the way to manipulate the use of social media to ensure the power could be taken back from the consumers.






Reference

Oyza, I. & Edwin, A. (2015). Effectiveness of social media networks as a strategic tool for organizational marketing management. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, S2(006). Retrieved from http://www.icommercecentral.com/open-access/effectiveness-of-social-media-networks-as-a-strategic-tool-for-organizational-marketing-management.php?aid=66382


James, F. & Durham, H. (2013).  50 shades of digital marketing. Bookboon.





Social Media & Brand Marketing

Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. 


Facebook and Twitter provide advertisers with the likes and dislikes of their consumers, as it provides the businesses with target potential customers. 


Reviews

A good service would result in a positive review which gets the company free advertising.


Social media marketing and online marketing are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Social media marketing is a component of online marketing. Online marketing has become a useful tool for entrepreneurs. Whereas social media marketing is conducted through social networks, such as Facebook, or Twitter. 


Branding is a process that is used by businesses to utilize marketing strategies to enhance their product or service image. Good brands make people’s lives a little easier and better by allowing them to identify goods according to the quality of the product associated with the brand and making shopping very efficient. People are loyal to their favorite brands that satisfy their expectations and deliver on their brand promise. 


Simple

Popular brands today have simple and easy to remember logos.


Different

A brand should have its own level of uniqueness for it to be able to stand out from similar products or competition in the market.


Safe

Choose appropriately without offending any particular culture. 





Reference

Oyza, I. & Edwin, A. (2015). Effectiveness of social media networks as a strategic tool for organizational marketing management. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, S2(006). Retrieved from http://www.icommercecentral.com/open-access/effectiveness-of-social-media-networks-as-a-strategic-tool-for-organizational-marketing-management.php?aid=66382

Social Media Networks Impact on Organizations

Social Media Networks Impact on Organizations

Social media platforms provide the perfect opportunity to take advantage of word of mouth and to see it spread. “Liking” a brand on Facebook can spread virally very quickly throughout the various social media channels. Videos can also act as a reference for reviews of products and services through YouTube. 


Communicating with customers

Organizations can use social media as an advantage by communicating with dis-satisfied consumers directly and change or improve their products accordingly.


Considerations and influence

It would be wise for any business to develop and implement a sustainable social media strategy to successfully take advantage of this rapidly changing environment.


Trending Topics

Trends are determined by an algorithm that monitors hot subjects based on who you follow and where you’re located. These ‘trends’ assist organizations in knowing what is acceptable and what is not at a particular time in the market.





Reference

Oyza, I. & Edwin, A. (2015). Effectiveness of social media networks as a strategic tool for organizational marketing management. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, S2(006). Retrieved from http://www.icommercecentral.com/open-access/effectiveness-of-social-media-networks-as-a-strategic-tool-for-organizational-marketing-management.php?aid=66382

Effectiveness of social media networks

Introduction

Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Pinterest, have not existed for over two decades but has gained widespread acceptance. Social media networks help people and organizations with relationship building and interactions.


Organizations use these platforms to interact directly with existing and new customers for their goods and services. In order to interact with more customers easily and cheaply, businesses shift from the traditional methods to social media. As a result, they grew business partnerships, reduced marketing expenses, improved search rankings, increased traffic, provided marketplace insight, and developed loyal fans.


The top two benefits of social media marketing are increasing exposure and traffic. 


However, only presence is not enough, there are 4 basics to maintaining a successful social media presence. 


Contents

You must publish fresh, relevant information regularly for your audience to consume.


Engagement

Engage online audiences friendly. The positive perceptions will translate into sales, loyalty, and even an army of brand ambassadors.


Skills

Graphics, research, designs, backend management, analytics, optimization, monitoring, etc.


Consistency

Backed by painstaking efforts and commitment to doing it day in, day out. Most marketers are using social media to develop loyal fans. 


However, there are some negative effects of social media marketing and marketers are now faced with the challenge to rethink the way they communicate with potential consumers. 


Social media allow individuals to interact with anyone on the internet and build relationships. It is a wonderful chance for companies to do their marketing through these channels. 


Now, consumers can interact with those brands directly, that interaction feels more personal to users than traditional methods. 






Reference

Oyza, I. & Edwin, A. (2015). Effectiveness of social media networks as a strategic tool for organizational marketing management. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, S2(006). Retrieved from http://www.icommercecentral.com/open-access/effectiveness-of-social-media-networks-as-a-strategic-tool-for-organizational-marketing-management.php?aid=66382




11/28/2020

The Visual Social Media, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pnterest

In today's information-hungry world, Firms need to provide value in order to market with content and stand out. In order to be successful, brands need to deliver high quality and the right message at the right time to the right potential customers.


Tumblr hosts tons of blogs that focus on visual storytelling through images.


Pinterest is also one of the top-performing social networks for conversion and directly attributable purchases.


Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service and offers several photographic filters that users can apply to their images.


When it comes to boosting web traffic to brands' sites, video content is increasingly important. If customers have already viewed one of the videos about a brand, they are more likely to visit its website.


However, simply boosting web traffic is not enough to guarantee an increase in sales. Brands have to do something more attractive if they want consumers to become return purchasers and build a long term relationship.


Video is an excellent platform for building customer relationships, as it not only gives brands the chance to create more powerful stories. Channels such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter have the functionality to upload videos.






Reference

James, F. & Durham, H. (2013).  50 shades of digital marketing. Bookboon.


Mobile App vs. a Mobile Website

According to a survey conducted by Compuware, 85% of consumers favour apps over mobile websites due to the convenience, speed, and ease of use. 


Pros of Moblie App

It’s becoming much easier to develop mobile apps due to there are many free frameworks and development tools to get started. By developing a mobile app in the code, you can embrace the native functionality of the hardware of the phone such as built-in accelerometers, cameras, flash, and gyroscopes.


Mobile websites always require an internet connection, but apps don't. Many apps can store data locally on the phone and you can continue interacting with them even when no connections are available. 


Pros of Mobile Website

However, depends on the target audiences, available budget, intended purpose, and required features, building a mobile website might be a better solution sometimes.


To develop an app, you need to consider each platform such as iOS or Andriod on which you want to make it available, and it's a cost. But a mobile website is only one version.







Reference

Moth, D. (2013, March 12). 85% of consumers favour apps over mobile websites. Retrieved November 28, 2020, from https://econsultancy.com/85-of-consumers-favour-apps-over-mobile-websites/


James, F. & Durham, H. (2013). 50 Shades of Digital Marketing. Bookboon. 

11/27/2020

E-Commerce - Conversion rate Optimisation

What is a conversion?

Doing business is not as simple as finding a potential client and then taking the contents of their wallets. There are gaps between being found and the transaction. So, you must build the bridge. Email inquiries, telephone calls, Online quotes, Data capture, Facebook “likes”, Twitter followers, blog post comments, and anything else.


The Conversion funnel

Visitors enter the funnel at the top, pass through, and leaves the bottom as converted customers.


Tips

The smaller the top, the fewer visitors will enter, and therefore the less will fall out the bottom as paying customers. Wide funnels mean more opportunities. 


How long is your conversion funnel? The conversion funnel needs to be ‘just right’ to enable a visitor to collect all of the necessary information but without having to travel a long distance to get it.


Determine The Conversion Rate

Establish what your goals are for each page

The objectives vary on different pages. On the home page, you may be trying to push them through to that sales page. 


Powerful Calls to Action* (CTA’s)

CTAs range from huge banners that cross the length of the page to small buttons or even just text links. A link that says “Click here for more information” is weak. Use powerful statements like “Buy online and save 30%” or “See the impact service X had on businesses like yours”.


Less is more

Don’t distract them with too many other options. 


Sitewide CTA’s

The reason you want these site-wide is that ultimately you don’t know when the visitor may choose to make contact, and you need to make their life as easy as possible. 


Use of video

Depending on what you are offering the user, you may need to convey the benefits before they are willing to take the next step. 


Remove the leaks

Use Google Analytics to monitor user behavior and spot opportunities to tighten up the funnel.


Navigation

Allows users to navigate to any page from any page. To provide accessibility and prioritize key services. Users may be able to go to the services page in one click but to get to the pricing page for a particular service it takes 3 or 4 clicks. 


No priority in the navigation

Nearly every page is listed and users just get confused. Confusion leads to exits and exits lead to no sales.


Split Testing Sales Pages

A split test is the process of creating two different options and allowing data to gather to see beyond doubt which performs better such as two different CTA buttons, two different videos. You can set up split tests with Google’s Website Optimizer(www.google.com/websiteoptimizer)


Online Quote Forms

If you have an online quote process then there are probably several different bits of information you are trying to extract from the customer:

  • The product they are interested in
  • Details of the product – size, shape, color
  • Quantity
  • Their address details


Two really powerful tips when structuring this process:

  1. It is better to break it up into several pages rather than requesting all info on one page.
  2. Leave the boring address and personal information on the final page.


*Bear in mind:

Offer them the option of signing up so that you can store all their details for future purchases.


Help users to recognize your brand.


Enables faster checkout in the future and exclusive member only offers.







Reference

Pateman, N. & Holt, D. (2011). Inbound marketing. Bookboon.

E-Commerce - Email Marketing

Email marketing is traditionally considered very outbound. However, inbound marketing is just a frame of mind, doing things on the customers’ terms rather than your own. 


Buy relationships rather than databases

Instead of purchasing your data from a third party, enter into a transaction directly with the client. For example, offer a video tutorial series that users must receive via email. 


Qualify your leads

If you offer a range of products or services, you can offer a few different options. 


Automate the process

Be managed by an auto-responder system. 


Keep it personal

The language in the email, the format of your video, and the wording of your emails must all be at a level they can understand. Consumers buy into stories much faster than they buy into facts and figures.


Strike while the iron’s hot

A strong call to action. The opportunity to move them into a commercial relationship.


Actions for Inbound Email Marketing

Prioritise

The relationships, trust, and credibility, an inbound email marketing campaign in your strategy. However, it will NOT help them find you in the first place. Address your SEO and Social Media first.


Begin at the end

Before you start constructing your giveaway, know precisely what the call to action is going to be at the end, as that will affect how you shape the giveaway itself.





Reference

Pateman, N. & Holt, D. (2011).  Inbound marketing. Bookboon.

The Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation is all about ranking at the top of Google or Yahoo for terms relating to your products and services. It is the epitome of inbound marketing. 


Google has to improve the user experience, to ensure that the search results are always the most relevant results are returned.


The Benefits of SEO

Targeted traffic

The people that SEO connects you with are those that are actively hunting out your products and services. 


Free

The Search Engine Results Page (SERPs*). 


Credibility

It’s the online equivalent to having a big shiny shop in the centre of a busy high street.


Developing an asset

SEO does not stop when you stop. The website retains its organic value and your business can continue to reap the benefits for years to come.


SEO has its rules, competition, uncertainty, winners, and losers. It can be divided into two halves, Relevance and Authority.


SEO = Relevance + Authority


Relevance

The relevance has to be built across the website, not just the home page. By adding the right content to each landing page, you can ensure your website is in with a fighting chance of ranking the front page for all relevant terms.


Authority

Google intends to give the user the best result, not your result. So, you need to make Google believe they are the same thing. It is achieved through developing authority for your landing pages. 


The Google Keyword tool

‘Local Monthly Searches’ are the number of searches made each month within the country you have listed. Monthly searches can be misleading, the monthly search volumes are calculated by Google based on a 12-month average.


Facebook Estimated Reach (http://www.facebook.com/advertising/ )


Search Trends (http://www.google.com/trends)


SEO Quake ( http://www.seoquake.com/ )

PageRank

PageRank is the number that Google places on any given webpage to roughly indicate how authoritative that page is. PageRank has a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 being the least authoritative and 10 being the highest. The higher the PageRank the more value that the website has in Google’s eyes. 


Number of pages indexed by Google

A website that continually pushes out large numbers of high-quality pages is going to get significantly more traffic than one that does not.


Mozbar (http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar)

Page Authority

This is Seomoz’s analysis of the authority of a page based on a wide range of measurements. It will give you a good indication of how easily that page will rank for any term that it targets.


Domain Authority

The analysis of the authority of the domain as a whole will give you a better picture of the overall strength of a website and how quickly new pages will rank.


Domain

The search engines attach great value to the name of your domain, so if you own www.pinkfluffyslippers.com, you are going to be at a massive advantage for ranking for the term “pink fluffy slippers”. 


However, long ugly domains that match an important search term like www.cheap-widescreen-tv’s-for-sale.org. the UK is slowly being eroded by Google so these exact match domains.


URL structure

Just don’t make it too long as it ends up looking spammy, impossible for users to type, and gets fewer clicks in the SERPs.


Keyword density

Just write naturally and use lots of synonyms as this will provide a much nicer read for the user but still help build relevance for the target terms.


Tags

These are the things that the search engines read to interpret information on the page. Ensure to match the titles to what you believe people are searching for when you add content to your site. This is why FAQ sections can be so powerful for generating traffic because it just like asking Google questions.


Link building

The on-page stuff is really useful to help Google understand what your website is all about but for Google to decide where you deserve to rank.


In 2011, Google made some huge changes to the algorithm that were aimed at devaluing the manipulative links. 


Tips for link building

Guest blogging

Find blogs relating to your market that has a “Guest blogging” section which allows you to include a link back to your site if you write a really good quality post for them. 


Leveraging relationships

To offer our help to charities free of charge in return for a nice link.


Linkbait

Link baiting is achieved by creating unique content that people just have to share through their own sites and blogs.


Internal linking

Through linking intelligently within their site itself. Google treats these links in just the same way as external links. Identify your primary landing pages and link to them from all other relevant pages. But, don’t overdo links that have no SEO value.


Linking outwards to other content

A good website SHOULD link outwards. 


Social Media

Twitter links have been incorporated into Google's algorithm, and you can probably expect other social signals to follow suit very shortly. 


Google Places &Map

For any small business that is looking for local custom, location is ALWAYS a factor, and therefore Google Places is a seriously big deal. 


SEO Action

The basics

With the very basics of SEO (relevance and authority).


Market research

How many people are searching for your products and services?


Delivery

Decide who is going to be delivering the campaign. If you work with an agency or a freelancer then prepare some tough questions. If they come unstuck then move on.


Develop an asset and future-proofing

Ensure whoever takes the reins is aware of both short term and long term goals. You should see some positive movement in traffic and rankings within 1-3 months but also signs that they are enhancing the quality of the site in a way that will set you apart from the competition in years to come.






Reference

Pateman, N. & Holt, D. (2011). Inbound Marketing. Bookboon.

11/26/2020

The Differences between B2B and B2C

A business model is a sustainable way of doing business, the unique combination of attributes that deliver a certain value proposition, and a platform that enables the strategic choices to become profitable. A business model also describes the coherence in the strategic choices.


B2C

Business-to-consumer (B2C) means selling products and services directly from businesses to consumers. B2C became immensely popular during the dotcom boom of the late 1990s because of the Internet. For example, Japanese clothing brand UNIQLO has opened its online store (https://www.uniqlo.com/tw/) in Taiwan to sell their products online.


B2B

B2B e-commerce, or business-to-business electronic commerce, describes online order transactions between businesses. 


B2B e-commerce comes in many forms. For example, business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C), wholesale, manufacturers, and distributors.


B2B2C model takes out the middleman between the B2B organization and the B2C, putting the businesses directly in contact with the consumer. For example, the wholesaler or manufacturer sends goods to the B2B, and those goods are then sold to the final consumer. 


In a B2B2C model, the wholesaler or manufacturer reaches the final consumer by either partnering with the B2B or directly selling to the consumer. For example, the consumer may purchase a product from an affiliate blogger but the product is branded and sent by the manufacturer.


Wholesale is a popular form of B2B and could also be described as the sale of goods to other businesses. Wholesale B2B models are present in many industries mostly in retail businesses. Using a B2B e-commerce platform allows the wholesaler to display products easier and creates a seamless buying experience.


Manufacturers produce finished goods in combination with factories. For example, the manufacturer creates individual car parts, such as an engine. The engine may then sells to an automotive company to produce a car, and sells it to the final consumers.


What Are The Differences?

The major difference between B2B and B2C, is selling products and services directly from businesses to the final consumers, or not. And the final consumers mean they are end customers and do not use purchased items for any other productions for sales purposes later.


The consumers of B2B is more narrow and significant than B2C’s counterparts, firms, or organizations, not for immediate usage. Instead, they use for business or internal purposes. 


What Their Primary Characteristics? 

Though marketing in B2B and B2C might be similar in the methods of advertising and marketing channels, there are differences in marketing tactics since they have very different target customers.


In B2C, it is very common to advertise in general media like television or social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. But, for B2B, those traditional ways may not work as we think since the target audiences are not the general public.


B2B transactions are commonly larger than in B2C as B2B sell their products to firms or groups, not individuals. Moreover, multiple individuals like managers influence the making-decision process in B2B. Normally, B2B has a deeper relationship with clients than in B2C since the B2B market is smaller than B2C.


Furthermore, the scale of potential customers in B2B is also narrower than in B2C and needs to develop a strong relationship with their clients, to builds trust with clients and loyalty. In B2C, relationships with customers are often shorter than B2B and also less loyal than in B2B. Customers are highly unlikely to wear the same clothing always from the same brand.


Unlike in B2C, B2B buyers do not buy goods to satisfy their personal demand. They purchase technology, software, and services to optimize their operation and manufacturing. Their purposes are to reduce cost or ultimately increases revenue. In short, it is for future profitability and productivity.


How Do They Fundamentally Differ? 

The consumers of B2B is more narrow and significant than B2C’s counterparts, firms, or organizations, not for immediate usage. For example, you go to a Lamborghini branch to buy a car, then you are a B2C customer, Lamborghini is a B2C company. You set up a coffee shop and go to the coffee supplier to purchase coffee beans and then sell coffee drinks in your store, you are a B2B customer. 


The Similarities

Marketers in both B2B and B2C, communicate directly to customers. Although the marketing strategies in B2B and B2C depend on their targets, both have to do a customer-centric sales process to win their customers. Moreover, both B2B and B2C have to make sure that they have solutions for their customers and continue the customer journey after-sales. 


How Have Electronic Tools Changed The Relationship for The Better, and Not?

For B2C businesses, electronic tools changed the relationship for the better for sure. For example, we can use apps installed on our phone to purchase goods, services, and play games. Those firms can now directly provide their goods and services to their lovely customers and upgrade their relationships.


For B2B businesses, electronic tools also changed the relationship for the better for sure. For example, they can have a meeting through the meeting apps, managing projects with apps like Asana or Microsoft Teams.



Business-to-Customer (B2C)

  • One time cooperation with a focus on a single transaction
  • Each transaction is executed as if business/transactional partners have never cooperated in the past
  • Both business/transactional partners determine for themselves whether to transact business
  • Each transaction is priced specifically
  • Payment method has to be determined.

Business-to-Business (B2B) are:

  • Ongoing cooperation between business/transactional partners
  • Large quantity of data is exchanged along the value chain
  • Different business/transactional partners with specific objective have to be coordinated
  • Negotiation is performed at the initiation of the relationship
  • Price allocation is agreed upon at the initiation of the relationship
  • Payment is made via traditional and pre-established payment channels.




Reference

B2B Ecommerce: Everything You Need to Know. (2020, November 21). Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://www.bigcommerce.com/articles/b2b-ecommerce/


J. (2020, November 01). What is B2B and B2C? Differences between B2B and B2C. Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://www.mageplaza.com/blog/what-is-b2b-and-b2c-differences-between-b2b-b2c.html

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