Difference between B2B and B2C e-commerce

Nowadays, many e-commerce websites emerges such as http://www.1688.com, http://www.chinainout.com and http://www.amazon.cn, and they exist for different sake and they also have different functions. But we divide them into two types-B2B and B2C(acturelly C2C is very few and there it is left out).

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When looking at the difference between B2B and B2C e-commerce, many people assume the most obvious difference – B2B is businesses selling to other businesses online and B2C is businesses selling to consumers online. Sure, that’s true. But that’s not all.

Let’s look at a few other differences.

Purpose

The purpose of B2C e-commerce is not only to sell products and services online, but also to drive traffic, increase and strengthen brand awareness, and educate customers on catalogues and promotions. Generally, there is equal focus on customer retention and bringing in new ones.

In B2B e-commerce, the purpose is to increase and strengthen existing business relationships overtime, and cut costs of searching and dealing with new vendors. B2B e-commerce involves lower traffic, but higher AOV.

Purchase Power

In B2C e-commerce, the purchase process is much less complex. The buyer is usually also the decision maker. Purchase power is often influenced by brand loyalty, consumer recommendations and reviews, and consumer preference and taste.

The purchase process in B2B goes much beyond a single buyer and one decision maker. Purchase processes in this type of commerce generally involves a number of highly knowledgeable buyers that consult numerous executive decision makers. Orders are made based on the needs of the company such as raw materials for a manufacturer.

Infrastructure

B2C e-commerce systems generally have a simplified structure that communicates a paralleled brand message and product catalogues across the same group of customers.

In B2B e-commerce, this requires a more advanced system in which products and prices are customized to different groups of customers. A high degree of personalization creates streamlined process flows, eliminating browsing for the needed product catalogue for order.

Payments

B2C transactions are done at the point of sale on the B2B web store via credit or debit cards, or even customer gift cards.

In B2B transactions, payment processes are set up on account-basis. Consumers place their orders electronically on the web store, and receive the invoice for the purchase to process the payment.

Yes, many of us are users of the B2C websites and we are consumers.