The types of ecommerce by the parties involved

Within this classification, six types are outlined in ecommerce:

Business-to-Business (B2B) with its subtype Business-to-Government
(B2G), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Consumer-to-Business (C2B),
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C), Government-to-Business (G2B) and
Government-to-Consumer (G2C). In general, identifying and then
targeting the right audience is a matter of importance. A general look
at the buyer side can only be the starting point, though it provides
certain value as well. Types of ecommerce by participators

Selling to consumers

Companies, where buyers are individual consumers, feature a short

sales cycle, price sensitivity and a high possibility of impulse
purchases. Sellers win when they bet big on consumers’ emotions:

Personalize customer communication (launching targeted marketing

campaigns).
Bond with customers (telling the seller’s story, engaging in social
media, responding to customer feedback, extensively using soft
selling marketing techniques like valuable content).
Encourage customer loyalty (asking for customer opinion in surveys,
incorporating loyalty programs).
Provide smart assistance throughout a shopping journey (offering
product recommendations based on a customer’s browsing activity,
a comprehensive customer profile with previous and abandoned
orders, preferences and wish list, and proper customer support).

Business-to-Consumer

The B2C type is the most widespread in ecommerce, thus the market
in each product line is really competitive. Here, focusing on smaller,
yet profit-generating, target audience is business-critical. This goes
without saying that in our practice we frame B2C projects around the
target audience.

B2C project example

The company offers a delivery service of organic product boxes

across the country. What their customers are expecting is
convenience – a time-saving ordering process and no delays in
delivery. On the website, we design a smooth journey – customers
may vary products in the boxes, subscribe for regular delivery and
reorder instantly. Also, we integrate ecommerce with the company’s
back office to organize order processing, dispatch and delivery
properly.

Consumer-to-Consumer

Within the C2C type, consumers sell assets or services to other

consumers online. To place sales advertisements and connect to
potential buyers, individuals use a third-party business (an
ecommerce website or an online marketplace). Ebay and Amazon are
two prominent C2C ecommerce providers.

Government-to-Consumer

Online transactions can streamline communication between

governmental organizations and citizens. Possible activities may
include information sharing, paying fees (for education, rent,
consulting services, etc.), renewing licenses and more.

G2C project example

A telecommunications company provides government-subsidized

mobile networking services. They don’t need complex, heavily-
customized business logic on the website as their ecommerce
operations are pretty straightforward. However, they use a feature-
rich ecommerce platform that is license-free, yet expensive in terms
of support. We start the cooperation with the analysis of the
ecommerce functionality needed to support the business. As a result,
we offer and then migrate the website to an alternative platform –
commercially viable and with sufficient functionality. Now, the
company stays within their support budget.

Selling to businesses

Having businesses as potential buyers comes with its pros and cons.
On the bright side, sellers have a larger average order value and a
high chance of wholesale purchases (the two are often
interconnected). On the downside, a sales cycle is generally longer
and several decision-makers may be involved. Thus, the focus should
be on establishing the trust-based long-term relationship with
customers. Given that the purchasing process is far less emotional
but rather rational, sellers’ most favored techniques include:

Offering custom pricing (price quotes, loyalty perks, bonuses for

wholesale orders).
Giving flexibility in placing orders (valued customers may need or
prefer placing orders by phone or email).
Providing for placing quick repeat orders.
Making account registration mandatory (but certainly quick and
user-friendly) to keep in touch with customers further on.
Recognizing the importance of after-sale support.

Business-to-Businesses

At first sight, it seems that the name explicitly suggests that both
participants in B2B ecommerce are businesses, for example a
manufacturer or a wholesale supplier selling to a retailer. However,
B2B ecommerce has one more face – multi-vendor marketplaces.
Though end buyers are individual consumers, a marketplace owner
sells digital space to business vendors, thus conducting B2B
transactions.

Tips to manage a multi-vendor marketplace effectively

Having launched a number of marketplaces, we strongly recommend

– automate as much as possible and give vendors self-service tools to
accelerate time-to-market. If you want to reward vendors with the
highest sales – set rules to track sales activity and trigger loyalty
bonuses automatically. Consider attribute-based product information
management – vendors will clearly see what product characteristics
they need to provide.

We mention B2G (business-to-government) companies as part of the

B2B type as the core idea of this classification is to distinguish
between individual and corporate ecommerce participants. Thus, we
see both private and governmental organizations as a business, as
opposed to an individual participant.

Consumer-to-Business

In the C2B model, individuals – entrepreneurs or freelancers – offer

goods or services to companies. For example:

A web designer building a company’s website.

A photographer picturing product catalogs.
A caterer working on corporate events, conferences or business
meetings.
As for individuals, they can (and should) employ diverse marketing
channels to sell their services effectively: for example, they showcase
portfolio and collect customer feedback on an ecommerce website
and expand their online presence via job listings and social media.
Government-to-Business

G2B is online commercial interaction between governmental and

private corporations. As a rule, a G2B model gives companies a
convenient way to deal with payments and legal procedures, like
document renewal, cutting down significantly on bureaucratic foot-
dragging and paper work. A classic G2B example is a government
website where businesses go to pay taxes.

The types of ecommerce by goods

This classification is important as the product profile in ecommerce

largely defines a seller’s business plan.

Physical goods

Choosing to sell physical goods, online retailers compete with

traditional brick-and-mortar businesses and their major competitive
strength of a real-life purchasing experience where a possibility to
view and try on goods leads to more informed purchasing decisions.
Consequently, ecommerce businesses need to show how online
shopping can be a worthy alternative – accurate images and detailed
product descriptions help with the purchasing choice, prompt expert
assistance and how-to guides cover the role of sales assistants,
customer-friendly delivery and return terms add to customer risk-
taking. Moreover, there are so many advanced technologies and
approaches to power your ecommerce for superior customer
experience. We took time to outline the possibilities within our
custom ecommerce development offering.

Digital goods

In a way, selling digital goods sounds tempting: there are low

overheads due to the absence of inventory costs and delivery limits.
However, sellers may face tough competition with free content or
software and should stress the benefits of purchasing goods rather
than getting them for free. For example, when launching an image-
sharing resource, entrepreneurs can bet on the high quality of
provided assets and the importance to reward contributors.

Services

From our ecommerce consulting practice, we can recall success tips

that are likely to work with all kinds of services sold online. Let’s say
up-sell opportunities are vast as customers may only have a rough
idea of how to organize the service most effectively and expect a
seller to build on it. And an online calculator will provide for price
transparency. Also, ecommerce companies selling services definitely
need to engage phone or email communication channels to settle
the details and finalize the deal with a customer.

Still, the nature of services impacts a number of business aspects.

Companies offering repeat services win with a subscription-based
model – for example, a cleaning business can offer customers a
possibility to set a regular cleaning schedule. Besides, such a retailer
should mind the geographical limits of their business.