B2B and B2C E-Commerce Concepts – All you need to Know

B2B and B2C E-Commerce Concepts – All you need to Know

E-commerce sales are divided into two primary segments, known as Business To Consumer and Business To Business, and both can the whole market. 

E-commerce is a huge industry worldwide. Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa are said to be the fastest-growing country in e-commerce sales.

Selling the same service and goods to an individual or a business or B2B and B2C customers, the e-commerce web design plays an important role in figuring that how to make your business unique and attractive among all other competitors.

E-commerce websites are lucrative to provide maximum sales from your products and services and your company needs to know which types of site suits your business goals better. The ecommerce market is flourishing, and a huge number of companies are digitizing their businesses. Selling is now spreading in B2B and B2C markets. Merchants need to know the core difference between B2B and B2C eCommerce so that they understand their audience and help grow the sale.

It is broad and more popular these days and that’s why being on online platforms isn’t enough, but taking beneficial actions is important.

In this blog, we will understand both B2B vs B2C concepts and their major difference that one business should know before entering into the digital world.

Understanding B2B vs B2C

Before we cover the major differences between B2B via B2C marketing, let’s understand the difference between these audiences.

• B2B – “business-to-business”
• B2C – “business-to-consumer”

So, companies engaged with B2B marketing are linked to selling their services directly to other businesses at a big level whereas B2C companies are connected to selling their products to consumers. The response and sales work differently on multiple platforms as the audience is different. Now, let’s understand about B2B and B2B e-commerce.

What is B2B e-commerce?

As we have discussed above B2B is called Business to Business. To simplify, you can understand by measuring companies that purchase products from a supplier. Wholesalers, retailers and companies who provide services also come under this category. When this process is held via digital platforms, it’s known as B2B e-commerce. For example – Apple purchases Symantec antivirus and use it in their systems.

All businesses connected have B2B relation using e-commerce which offers performance indicators, target a new audience and uses sales journey strategies. Prices of B2B items and services vary depending on the region, location and country.

Here are some common characteristics of B2B Business –

• B2B businesses have a greater sales volume and the price of transactions is also high.
• B2B e-commerce goes through audits and needs to follow the rules and legal requirements.
• The transaction and risk management should be precise as B2B is a game of huge numbers of people and data. In e-commerce, issues like data leaks may happen on online platforms like email; hence management needs to be tight.

What is B2C e-commerce?

B2C is called Business to Consumer where customers can directly purchase the product. When such businesses come on a digital platform it’s called B2C for example; Amazon where this ecommerce platform sells online products. For example – Walmart purchases from wholesalers and sell to consumers and retailers after manufacturing around the world.

When we try to understand the characteristics of B2C, it’s here –

• B2C focuses on product quality.
• It can offer special sales.
• Fast delivery is possible in B2C.
• A B2C e-commerce business takes shipping charges.

Differences between B2B and B2C E-commerce you need to understand

Major Difference between B2C and B2B –

B2C = selling products or services to people

B2B = selling products or services company or another business.

We have discussed the main difference above. But business owners must know some other differences so that they can handle their online businesses for companies and consumer customer types. Here we’ll know the key difference between B2C and B2B eCommerce –

1. Overall Purpose and goals

   Even though B2B and B2C e-commerce businesses have one main goal to earn a profit, still the purposes are different.

   B2B eCommerce websites focus on easy transactions between businesses whereas B2C eCommerce websites are concerned with generating sales. Hence, different features and approaches in the website are prioritized.

2. Scale of audience

   The scale of the audiences is the primary difference between B2B and B2C. The audience in B2B e-commerce is narrow where the number of buyers has straightforward profiles like startups or agency owners. It presents to a smaller audience base who are looking for common purchases.

   B2C brands target people and relative audiences like kids, fitness freaks music fans and more. It appeals more to the masses of different tastes, likes, dislikes and other habits which is beneficial for business because one can be sure that some amount of customers will always be there who will purchase their products.

3. Marketing Strategies

   B2B e-commerce needs a website that can solve customers’ queries and where inbound marketing and content strategy can be included to define your products. The salesperson works more like the consultant to concentrate on a great customer experience.

   B2C e-commerce is customisable according to your niche. One can promote such businesses through websites, social media, email, and others. It can help guide customers using purchase strategy with personalisation experience. Communicating to a broad audience can lead to more conversion in purchases where assessing the results will help you understand the good and bad for your business.

4. Website Structure

   The website structure of B2B e-commerce has transactional design, user experience, and pop-ups. Product details on the B2B website are deeply explained with descriptions which also include interactive tools like contact forms, and chatbots to tackle customers’ issues.

   Without an individualized approach, selling online will always be harder in B2B than in B2C. Once the customer has purchased something, the sale should not be considered complete.

   In B2C e-commerce, it’s easy to approach customers individually by selling products online on the website. With social media and marketing campaigns, B2C businesses can offer and ensure the value of their products.

5. The Price and payment options

   B2B e-commerce reaches to couple a of hundred customers and generates revenue in millions or billions as it has high price services and products in bulk. But for B2C e-commerce business takes hundreds of thousands of customers to make a million as the sales price are lower.

   A retailer would purchase the 20 items at once but other people would just purchase one or two things at a time which directly shows how price can vary for B2B and B2C.

   When we talk about the payment mode, both e-commerce operations have one goal – sell online and get paid. But, it’s important to know which platform people like on B2B and B2C. B2B customer mostly prefers bank transfer or other B2B payment methods like the play later model Whereas, B2C consumers like to pay through Credit, Debit cards and Digital wallets.

6. Product-supporting content

   Content that guides customers to decide on the purchase is called product-supporting content. B2B is now adding product details on their websites with the details of resources and product information. This content includes buying guides, videos, blogs and articles, case studies, success stories and more.

   B2C consumers are generally individual persons; hence you can’t be sure about their purchasing decision. However, the feedback content may affect their decision like reviews, price and more about the product. Moreover, B2C websites share high-resolution images, discounts and offers, ratings and reviews, testimonials and about products.

7. Branding

   In branding, both B2B and B2C e-commerce website has a significant difference in websites. Practically B2C retailers focus much on branding their business in e-commerce sites like personalising product colour, same font colour in content, font size and more.

   B2B eCommerce owner doesn’t go with more focus on branding and is conservative. All they want is to suit their targeted audience’s requirements. It makes the B2B customer long-term partners; however, their purchase frequency is slow.

8. Decision-making process

   The B2B buying process is longer than B2C as B2B decision-making involves everyone in the team so it’s a multi-step process. From manager to team worker, everyone has an opinion that B2B purchasers listen and make a decision to purchase. Being a B2B e-commerce business, you should focus on some areas of the site, like about us and product pages, catalogues, demo videos of products, PDFs, manuals and more. Add user experience and shareable content.

   B2C is different in terms of decision-making as it is the individual’s choice to purchase or not, but give a solid reason on your website so that people can trust your brand.

9. Customer support

   Even though customer support is essential for both e-commerce businesses, B2B believes in a self-service model whereas B2C e-commerce is active with online support via chat or call to solve customer’s issues quickly.

   A B2B website can provide support in terms of the below points-

   • Active customer support and guidelines across checkouts.
   • Live and video chat support
   • FAQs
   • Customer care number for current customers or companies.

   The B2C website can offer support in terms of below points-

   • 24/7 customer support
   • System for post-sales
   • Customer care for product return or exchange
   • Self-serve bots to answer customers’ queries.

   B2B e-commerce involves large transactions between the other companies and it’s more valuable but needs good customer support as well. However, the B2C tends to be less valuable but doesn’t require any advanced sales support.

E-commerce Trends in B2B and B2C

B2B businesses have many benefits once they shift into e-commerce platforms. Such platforms help B2B provide an efficient and personalized shopping experience and enhance customer loyalty.

B2C ecommerce platform on the other hand depends on customer satisfaction and better shopping experience. B2C businesses can leverage powerful data analytics tools to analyse their customers’ activity and show them their preferences, offerings, services and more.

Latest eCommerce Industry Stats (Global) –

• 2025– Retail trends are expected to reach around 7 trillion dollars
• 2023- eCommercesales are expected to increase by 10.4% with around $6.54 trillion in sales.
• 2021- Retail eCommerce market increased by50%
• 2020- $4.28 trillion in sales globally
• The US is the largest e-commerce market globally

Top eCommerce Trends for Every Business: B2B and B2C –

• Augmented Reality (AR) creates interactive models for all products.
• MACH is Microservices, API-led, Composable & Headless commerce that supports business functionalities and that anyone can manage. It provides multiple benefits like seamless frontend and backend development, customisation, security, flexibility to scale, speed and much more.
• BNPL solutions or also said buy now, pay later models make the long-term partners for B2B businesses.
• BOPIS solutions focus on personalised experience by offering Buy Online, Pick up In-Store solutions. It lets B2C customers browse online and purchase from nearby stores.
• Voice commands on websites are a popular trend that allows users to just speak on the device to find their products.
• Omnichannel website is important these days as customers visit e-commerce portal through multiple devices like PC, laptop, mobile phone etc.

Searching for an e-commerce web designer? Click here, we’ll help you provide the best solution for your business website. For more useful resources you can contact us or browse our blog and keep an eye on our Medium page (coming soon).