What Is a Business-To-Consumer Transaction?

Business to Consumer, or B2C for short. B2C is a business-to-consumer e-commerce model. This form of e-commerce is generally dominated by the online retail industry, and mainly uses the Internet to carry out online sales activities. The B2C model is the earliest e-commerce model in China.

B2C means that enterprises provide consumers with a new type of shopping environment through the Internet-online stores (Excellent Amazon, China Dome, Jingdong Mall, Dangdang.com, etc.), and consumers shop online and pay online. Because this model saves time and space for customers and enterprises, and greatly improves transaction efficiency, especially for busy office workers, this model can save valuable time for them. However, the characteristics of the products sold online are also very obvious, and are limited to some special products, such as books, audiovisual products, digital products, flowers, toys, food and so on. These products have lower requirements for the buyer's perception, hearing, touch, and olfactory experience. Products such as clothing, audio equipment, and perfumes that require specific sensory experiences of consumers are not suitable for sale online. Of course, a few consumers are not ruled out. A certain brand and certain model decides to buy without the need for on-site experience, but there are few such consumers, and people are more willing to trust their experience to decide whether to buy. Therefore, successful companies in the B2C market, such as Dangdang and excellence, all sell special products. The B2C e-commerce payment method is a combination of cash on delivery and online payment, and most companies choose logistics outsourcing to save operating costs. With the change of consumer spending habits and the promotion of demonstration effects of outstanding companies, the number of online shopping users continues to grow ^[1]

1999 was the beginning of China's B2C development. Since this year, China's first group of leaders focusing on e-commerce has set a new milestone, which is to try B2C commercialization. Online shopping, from a purely conceptual vocabulary to the birth of the first order, completed the leap from idea to realization. The first batch of pilots, such as Li Guoqing, Shao Yibo, and Wang Juntao (Lao Rong), turned the first wave of China's Internet retail market. Some of these people have successfully entered the field of B2C and become successful pioneers, just as Li Guoqing's Dangdang has completed its IPO on the NYSE. The fall of Laorong my8848 represents the failure of China's earliest B2C attempt. However, no matter success or failure, it has given the posterity a path to the future, and it has also given the hope that future generations can go. It is also worthy of admiration, so this period is called the exploration period.

From 2004 to 2008, during this period, China's B2C market began to gradually recover. People were gradually awake from the initial frenzy, the investment bubble also gradually faded, and reason returned to these investors. This period is called the start-up period. The most representative case at this stage is Amazon's acquisition of Joyo.com. In 2004, China's B2C market began to fluctuate gradually. After a large number of enterprises closed down, investors began to reflect on it and finally treated the B2C market rationally. Leaders in e-commerce represented by Dangdang, excellence and eBay are still sought after by the capital. 2004. In 2009, Dangdang successfully completed the second round of financing. Amazon followed suit with a $ 100 million purchase and was rejected by Li Guoqing. Amazon followed suit with a huge $ 75 million acquisition of Dangdang's strong rival Yiyou.com. At this stage, vertical B2C emerged with 3C, home furnishing, clothing and other verticals as the main advantages. ^[2]

The initial classification of e-commerce models is based on the subjects involved in e-commerce, such as B2B, B2C, C2C, etc. The e-commerce project of the Institute of Finance and Trade of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences classifies different B2C business models according to the content of services provided to consumers: electronic business, electronic direct sales, electronic retail, distance education, online booking, online distribution and online finance. Michael Rappa divides the e-commerce model according to the way of obtaining income: broker age model, advertising model, infomediary model, business model (business model), and manufacturer model , Affiliate model, community model, and subscription model. Based on the types of e-commerce participants and the position of transaction subjects in the business model process, combined with the development of e-commerce, the B2C e-commerce transaction model is divided into the following four categories ^[4]

The B2C model includes the following main features ^[5]

With the continuous improvement of the information infrastructure, the speed of information transmission and processing has been greatly improved. E-commerce innovations continue to emerge, and the development trend of B2C malls in the next 5 years is ^[6] :

Business to Consumer High Growth Trends

Online shopping As the Internet goes deeper into the home, social awareness coverage expands, security technologies are resolved, the credit environment is continuously optimized, legal, tax, and regulatory issues are gradually improved, e-commerce will be widely popularized, and the proportion of e-commerce marketing will be increasing .

Business-to-consumer from comprehensive to professional, from good and bad to brand platform

Due to the advantages of centralized management of categories and more convenient communication between websites. Professional malls will eventually prevail in online marketing. As the Matthew Effect foreshadows, the joining of the market economic mechanism and the active allocation of resources will definitely eliminate some small-scale and chaotic retailers, while large-scale and well-operated retailers will seek further financing, expand cooperation and establish brand concepts. .

The tendency of enterprises to expand into the market in depth, affecting physical retailers

Netizens initially concentrated on selling simple products, but now they are showing a tendency to shift to the upstream market. Some online retailers have begun to build their own warehouses and even stores, enabling customers to get closer to physical objects faster, and to handle returns and after-sales services more conveniently and humanely. At the same time, capable operators will expand to high-end products, such as the positioning of JD Mall from "online sellers" to "selling department stores" and "selling books". The latest areas are the opening of luxury goods, brands and agents. Platforms followed. JD Mall is accelerating its development towards becoming a comprehensive online retailer. The Internet can enable retailers to provide a large amount of product information to customers. This communication ability can help web sellers to move faster to the upstream market and transform from marginal business methods to dominant business methods.

B2C Business-to-consumer large-scale independent B2C mall open platform

Demonstrating a certain scale of B2C open platform and attracting third-party merchants to settle on the one hand, enrich the variety and quantity of the platform's products, and on the other hand, also enrich the source of income. Have high-quality user resources. And through the integration of the supply chain to make service standards unified, so as to be recognized by users, and thus by the associates. The industry analysis shows that the B2C mall open platform can contribute to resources and increase revenue. It is also conducive to increasing sales and improving the revenue structure and addressing the requirements for sales and profit figures in the pre-IPO period. When JD.com, Amazon.com, Lekutian, etc. have transformed platform shopping websites, the word "open" has become one of the keywords in online shopping, especially in the B2C industry.

The rise of business-to-consumer mobile Internet consumption

In addition to the PC Internet, the prospect of the mobile Internet is more optimistic for the B2C industry. According to IBM research, from 2006 to 2011, the number of mobile users worldwide increased by 191% to about 1 billion users. With the increasing use of mobile devices, the continuous popularization of wireless broadband, and the development of wireless payment technologies, consumers will use mobile phones more frequently. With smartphones, consumers can browse product catalogs online, compare products, and accept marketing. Promotions, store location information, inventory availability, etc. and complete transactions directly.

SNS Business-to-consumer e-commerce website development based on SNS model

SNS is undoubtedly a revolution for e-commerce. It has fundamentally overturned and reconstructed the design of business models. It is closely centered on "customer-centric". Business model innovation and business capabilities are not simply combined, but organically combined Grafting a variety of new forms of e-commerce. SNS is not the optimization or electronicization of traditional sales models. He has brought deep reflection and positive changes in business planning.