Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer Types of E-Commerce - Assignment Example

Interactive and Internet Marketing Executive summary Electronic commerce is a fast growing industry in business that has been contributed due to advancement in information technology. The fact that online transactions are cheap, fast and efficient compared to other forms of transaction makes E-commerce to be a suitable way of doing business. Businesses use websites to advertise and perform transactions. This also makes the customers to compare different businesses offering the same services. This report discusses the various forms of electronic commerce; B2B, B2C, C2C and B2E. It has also carried a thorough research and analysis on Lions & Lions company website and Broadway Infotech website. Lions & Lions website involves B2B form of commerce while Broad Infotech represents that of B2C. The websites differs in the way information is organized since B2B seeks to sell in bulk to other sellers while B2C aim to sell to consumers. In electronic commerce, companies can apply the information that is generated by the transaction in order to update their inventory and account records which considerably reduces the cost of transacting compared to paper work. The way the information is represented on the website matters to the customer. It is therefore important that during the design of websites aimed for electronic commerce, the designer needs to have customer in mind. It is also important that companies update and modify their websites time to time with advancement in technology. Table of Contents Interactive and Internet Marketing 1 Executive summary 1 1.Introduction 7 Due to high rate of advancement of the electronic industry, most things are getting digitized. E-commerce is one of these areas where web and internet are being used to transact business. This has given rise to E-business where commercial transactions involving individuals and organizations are done via information systems that are controlled by the firm (Nertan 2011, p 100).One of the main advantages of E-commerce is that the customer can easily compare different businesses offering the same service. Moreover, automation of transactions has resulted to economic advantage, production gain and increase in efficiency (Schneider 2007, p 42). It also lowers intercompany transaction costs and offers greater opportunity for the business to market itself externally. Different types of E-commerce exists which include B2B (Business-to-Business), B2C (Business-to-Consumer), C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer), C2E (Consumer-to-Employee) among others. This report aims to discuss in details B2B and B2C types of e-commerce. The report shall analyze and evaluate websites that utilizes this technology and give recommendations on improvements to the websites. 7 Transaction cost of communication between the counterpart companies can reduce significantly when e – commerce is used. This is because transaction between computers through the network avoids most of the associated costs involving economic exchange between persons, the cost of travelling, communication time, and physical space to be used for meetings and processing of paper documents. After transactions the electronic commerce allows the companies to lower the cost of communication, monitor the performance of the contract or confirm the delivery. 7 2.Literature review 8 Business-to-business (B2B) describes the commerce transactions involving two or more businesses. Example is a transaction between a manufacture and a wholesaler. B2B commerce involves broad range of transactions involving companies. This includes wholesale trades and company purchases of resources, services, components, manufactured parts and equipments. Most of the companies involved in these services are intermediaries. In most cases the phrase B2B e-commerce refers to act of processing data using computer and communication through the internet for production and services of economic transactions. B2B is also used in the contest of collaboration and communication. When communication involves many employees then, this is B2B communication. B2B originally used to describe electronic communications between enterprises and businesses but came to be as well used in marketing initially describing only capital and industrial goods marketing (Nemat 2011 p.101). 8 Business-to-consumer (B2C) describes the form of business aimed to serving the consumer with the service or the product. Example is when a person buys a pair of shoes from the retailer. More than online retailing, B2C also offers services like online banking, online auctions, health services, travel services and real estate sites. According to Merono-Cerdan & Soto-Acosta (2005 pp 588), the most important role that B2C marketing plays is converting shoppers into buyers as consistently and aggressively as possible. It shortens the duration of the transactions and captures the interest of the customer immediately. According to Nemat, B2C electronic commerce has gone through tough times since the technology- heavy Nasdaq came into place in 2000. It is at this time that many e-commerce businesses shut their doors. However, the increase of shoppers online made it easier for B2C to stand the challenge 8 Consumer-to-consumer (C2C), also called citizen-to-citizen is an electronic commerce that involves electronic transactions between two or more consumers through a third party. A good example is online auction where a consumer posts an item he/she wants to sell and the other consumer bids to purchase it. The third party only charges a small commission for the service.C2C is the creation of services or products with a specific strategy or aim of promotion. It aims to help the consumers to share their services and products with the others as advocates based on the product value. According to Netmat (2011, p.102) electronic commerce is expected to increase in the future since it cuts the cost of using another company. 9 Business-to-employee (B2E) in e-commerce makes use of intra-business network that allows companies to offer their services and products to their employees. Examples of these are companies that use the networks within the company to automate corporate processes related to employee. These may include employee benefits reporting, management of insurance policies online, supply of requests by the employees online, and corporate announcements. 9 In all of the above form of electronic commerce, companies can apply the information that is generated by the transaction in order to update their inventory and account records. This is so because they can automatically link their transactions to the software used to manage all firm aspects which may include purchasing, sales and operations. Processing a purchase order in manual way which includes paperwork, entry of data, faxes, phone calls and approval requests can be expensive, therefore online transactions reduces cost substantially 9 3.Lions & Lions website and Broadway Infotech website 10 Lion &Lion Enterprise is a wholesale distributor company based in Miami, Florida. It specializes on distribution of computers and computer products to every Conner of the globe. Among the components it deals with are systems, CPU cooling fans, Peripherals and computer components. Their website www.lion-lion.com is that of Business-to-business electronic commerce. Through their website, it is possible to order bulk amount of their products and be delivered to you in whichever part of the world you are. Trading between businesses is therefore possible through this website. The graphical representations of the items plus short expandable descriptions of the items on stock, makes it easier for the customers to understand the item in all dimensions. According to Tang, Liou & Peng (2008 pg 400), in addition to the inherent brand of the product, the company should aim to increase the inherent attractiveness of the industrial brand. Brand.The B2B website has included attractive visual products on the home page making it more appearing to customers. The home page does give most of the information that the visitor and loads at reasonably good speed. The information presented on the home page convinces the client to navigate through the website to find the specific information that he/she may require. Navigation has also been made easy and consistent. Moving through the sections of the website; home, about closeout, catalog, contact, FAQ and price list would be interesting to the visitor of the site. The site has been organized in simplified sections that are easily understood with links and labels on content group and section headers easily understood. The links are also easy to differentiate from one another and spread out conveniently. 10 Broadway Infotech is firm that specializes in development of software. These software ranges from website development, website design and all form of software development. It is located in Sydney, Australia. Unlike Lion & Lion enterprise, Broadway Infotech sells its software locally. The design of the software they it sells to the customer depends on the requirement of the user. It means each customer would have his/her own unique needs on the kind of product that he/she wants to purchase from Broadway Infortech. The firm uses Electronic commerce to advertise and perform transactions with the customers. Their website www.broadwayinfotech.com.au is made to suit B2C form of electronic commerce. The amount of information on the home page is more than those in the B2B website. This is mostly due to the fact that whatever the firm sells to the customer is made based on the requirements of the customer. They have also simplified the site to the user by providing phone contact twice at striking parts of the website. Though the homepage is informative, it does not set a very proper context to the visitor. There is a lot of information on this page making the page splashy. The organization through the labels and links is quite good. Unlike the Lions & Lions website, the site has an easy way to submit the request in the home page. The site has fewer tabs, each tabs with many links. The sites explains in details the items the firm sell, gives examples of the major projects they have already carried out which goes well with advertising the firm. In business, two ways are generally used to identify and reach consumers; mass media and personal contact. In electronic commerce, both the cases apply and therefore the way the information is presented on the website is very important to determine the success of the business (Reiley & Spulber 2001, p 13). 11 4.Recommendation 12 Both websites serves the purpose of electronic commerce to a greater extent. However the fact that they mostly rely on online services to advertise and perform their businesses, makes it paramount for them to invest in putting in place attractive and more functional websites. Broadway infotech needs to include a search engine for its products. It should also provide its information in a friendly way to the website. Creating a good website is the start for a firm to obtain the benefits that comes with electronic commerce (Merono-Cerdan & Soto-Acosta 2005, p. 584). Though navigation is easy in this site, it lacks support from the clumsy information scattered all over the site. Probably what the customer would use is the phone number provided. Broadway should work on site organization. The content are in depth on this site though badly arranged. They should also make the site more appealing by using more variety of matching colours on their site. This would make the customers spend time on their site. In addition to the content on the website, it should include an RSS reader application to avoid piling information. 12 Lion & Lion website is detailed and less clumsy. However, the fact that it sells its products throughout the world makes it necessary for it to include more than the three languages that the site can be accessed by. Designing consumer centric website is the best approach in coming up with website that involves electronic commerce ( Reiley & Spulber 2001, p 13). It should also try to find other simpler way for the customers to contact them from the home page. 12 Recent years have seen electronic business experiencing tremendous growth as the field of information system evolves (Schneider 2007, p 38). It is therefore important that companies seeking using this form of business to periodically update its website with the change in technology. The following are some of the recommendations that both Lions& Lions and Broadway Infotech should consider in the design of their new websites. 13 The website should allow the visitors to access the information quickly and easily. 13 They should avoid using statements that are inflated in marketing their services and products. 13 Check and make sure that the colour combinations give a good viewing clarity for the visitors even to those who are color blind. 13 Conduct a thorough test of the website by using potential users of the site who will navigate through the site in several versions. They shall point out the relevant details on the site that need improvement. 13 5.Conclusion 13 1. Introduction Due to high rate of advancement of the electronic industry, most things are getting digitized. E-commerce is one of these areas where web and internet are being used to transact business. This has given rise to E-business where commercial transactions involving individuals and organizations are done via information systems that are controlled by the firm (Nertan 2011, p 100).One of the main advantages of E-commerce is that the customer can easily compare different businesses offering the same service. Moreover, automation of transactions has resulted to economic advantage, production gain and increase in efficiency (Schneider 2007, p 42). It also lowers intercompany transaction costs and offers greater opportunity for the business to market itself externally. Different types of E-commerce exists which include B2B (Business-to-Business), B2C (Business-to-Consumer), C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer), C2E (Consumer-to-Employee) among others. This report aims to discuss in details B2B and B2C types of e-commerce. The report shall analyze and evaluate websites that utilizes this technology and give recommendations on improvements to the websites. Transaction cost of communication between the counterpart companies can reduce significantly when e – commerce is used. This is because transaction between computers through the network avoids most of the associated costs involving economic exchange between persons, the cost of travelling, communication time, and physical space to be used for meetings and processing of paper documents. After transactions the electronic commerce allows the companies to lower the cost of communication, monitor the performance of the contract or confirm the delivery. 2. Literature review Business-to-business (B2B) describes the commerce transactions involving two or more businesses. Example is a transaction between a manufacture and a wholesaler. B2B commerce involves broad range of transactions involving companies. This includes wholesale trades and company purchases of resources, services, components, manufactured parts and equipments. Most of the companies involved in these services are intermediaries. In most cases the phrase B2B e-commerce refers to act of processing data using computer and communication through the internet for production and services of economic transactions. B2B is also used in the contest of collaboration and communication. When communication involves many employees then, this is B2B communication. B2B originally used to describe electronic communications between enterprises and businesses but came to be as well used in marketing initially describing only capital and industrial goods marketing (Nemat 2011 p.101). Business-to-consumer (B2C) describes the form of business aimed to serving the consumer with the service or the product. Example is when a person buys a pair of shoes from the retailer. More than online retailing, B2C also offers services like online banking, online auctions, health services, travel services and real estate sites. According to Merono-Cerdan & Soto-Acosta (2005 pp 588), the most important role that B2C marketing plays is converting shoppers into buyers as consistently and aggressively as possible. It shortens the duration of the transactions and captures the interest of the customer immediately. According to Nemat, B2C electronic commerce has gone through tough times since the technology- heavy Nasdaq came into place in 2000. It is at this time that many e-commerce businesses shut their doors. However, the increase of shoppers online made it easier for B2C to stand the challenge Consumer-to-consumer (C2C), also called citizen-to-citizen is an electronic commerce that involves electronic transactions between two or more consumers through a third party. A good example is online auction where a consumer posts an item he/she wants to sell and the other consumer bids to purchase it. The third party only charges a small commission for the service.C2C is the creation of services or products with a specific strategy or aim of promotion. It aims to help the consumers to share their services and products with the others as advocates based on the product value. According to Netmat (2011, p.102) electronic commerce is expected to increase in the future since it cuts the cost of using another company. Business-to-employee (B2E) in e-commerce makes use of intra-business network that allows companies to offer their services and products to their employees. Examples of these are companies that use the networks within the company to automate corporate processes related to employee. These may include employee benefits reporting, management of insurance policies online, supply of requests by the employees online, and corporate announcements. In all of the above form of electronic commerce, companies can apply the information that is generated by the transaction in order to update their inventory and account records. This is so because they can automatically link their transactions to the software used to manage all firm aspects which may include purchasing, sales and operations. Processing a purchase order in manual way which includes paperwork, entry of data, faxes, phone calls and approval requests can be expensive, therefore online transactions reduces cost substantially 3. Lions & Lions website and Broadway Infotech website Lion &Lion Enterprise is a wholesale distributor company based in Miami, Florida. It specializes on distribution of computers and computer products to every Conner of the globe. Among the components it deals with are systems, CPU cooling fans, Peripherals and computer components. Their website www.lion-lion.com is that of Business-to-business electronic commerce. Through their website, it is possible to order bulk amount of their products and be delivered to you in whichever part of the world you are. Trading between businesses is therefore possible through this website. The graphical representations of the items plus short expandable descriptions of the items on stock, makes it easier for the customers to understand the item in all dimensions. According to Tang, Liou & Peng (2008 pg 400), in addition to the inherent brand of the product, the company should aim to increase the inherent attractiveness of the industrial brand. Brand.The B2B website has included attractive visual products on the home page making it more appearing to customers. The home page does give most of the information that the visitor and loads at reasonably good speed. The information presented on the home page convinces the client to navigate through the website to find the specific information that he/she may require. Navigation has also been made easy and consistent. Moving through the sections of the website; home, about closeout, catalog, contact, FAQ and price list would be interesting to the visitor of the site. The site has been organized in simplified sections that are easily understood with links and labels on content group and section headers easily understood. The links are also easy to differentiate from one another and spread out conveniently. Broadway Infotech is firm that specializes in development of software. These software ranges from website development, website design and all form of software development. It is located in Sydney, Australia. Unlike Lion & Lion enterprise, Broadway Infotech sells its software locally. The design of the software they it sells to the customer depends on the requirement of the user. It means each customer would have his/her own unique needs on the kind of product that he/she wants to purchase from Broadway Infortech. The firm uses Electronic commerce to advertise and perform transactions with the customers. Their website www.broadwayinfotech.com.au is made to suit B2C form of electronic commerce. The amount of information on the home page is more than those in the B2B website. This is mostly due to the fact that whatever the firm sells to the customer is made based on the requirements of the customer. They have also simplified the site to the user by providing phone contact twice at striking parts of the website. Though the homepage is informative, it does not set a very proper context to the visitor. There is a lot of information on this page making the page splashy. The organization through the labels and links is quite good. Unlike the Lions & Lions website, the site has an easy way to submit the request in the home page. The site has fewer tabs, each tabs with many links. The sites explains in details the items the firm sell, gives examples of the major projects they have already carried out which goes well with advertising the firm. In business, two ways are generally used to identify and reach consumers; mass media and personal contact. In electronic commerce, both the cases apply and therefore the way the information is presented on the website is very important to determine the success of the business (Reiley & Spulber 2001, p 13). 4. Recommendation Both websites serves the purpose of electronic commerce to a greater extent. However the fact that they mostly rely on online services to advertise and perform their businesses, makes it paramount for them to invest in putting in place attractive and more functional websites. Broadway infotech needs to include a search engine for its products. It should also provide its information in a friendly way to the website. Creating a good website is the start for a firm to obtain the benefits that comes with electronic commerce (Merono-Cerdan & Soto-Acosta 2005, p. 584). Though navigation is easy in this site, it lacks support from the clumsy information scattered all over the site. Probably what the customer would use is the phone number provided. Broadway should work on site organization. The content are in depth on this site though badly arranged. They should also make the site more appealing by using more variety of matching colours on their site. This would make the customers spend time on their site. In addition to the content on the website, it should include an RSS reader application to avoid piling information. Lion & Lion website is detailed and less clumsy. However, the fact that it sells its products throughout the world makes it necessary for it to include more than the three languages that the site can be accessed by. Designing consumer centric website is the best approach in coming up with website that involves electronic commerce ( Reiley & Spulber 2001, p 13). It should also try to find other simpler way for the customers to contact them from the home page. Recent years have seen electronic business experiencing tremendous growth as the field of information system evolves (Schneider 2007, p 38). It is therefore important that companies seeking using this form of business to periodically update its website with the change in technology. The following are some of the recommendations that both Lions& Lions and Broadway Infotech should consider in the design of their new websites. The website should allow the visitors to access the information quickly and easily. They should avoid using statements that are inflated in marketing their services and products. Check and make sure that the colour combinations give a good viewing clarity for the visitors even to those who are color blind. Conduct a thorough test of the website by using potential users of the site who will navigate through the site in several versions. They shall point out the relevant details on the site that need improvement. 5. Conclusion E-commerce is one efficient area of technological growth that has enabled much business to transact and do their internal operations cheaply, efficiently and faster. The major reason for these is that transactions processing can be automated which reduces the overall transaction cost. Among the forms of Electronic commerce are C2C, B2B, B2C and C2E. B2E involves transactions between two consumers through a third party. B2B involves transactions between two businesses, B2C involves transactions between business and consumer and B2E involves transactions between a business and employee. Lion & Lion is an example company employing business-to-business form of e-commerce while Broadway Infotech employs business-to-customer form of e-commerce. Companies using e-commerce should ensure that their websites are as efficient as possible. Putting customer first in the design of the website is an important thing during the design of their websites. References Broadway Infotech 2011, Broadway Infotech Innovative Business Solution, viewed 22 July 2011, < http://www.broadwayinfotech.com.au/>. Lion & Lion Enterprises, Inc. 2011, Lion & Lion Enterprises, viewed 22 July 2011, < http://www.lion-lion.com/>. Merono-Cerdan, A & Soto-Acosta, P, ‘Examining e-business impact on firm performance through website analysis’, International Journal of Electronic Business, vol. 3, no. 6, pp.583-598. Nemat R 2011, ‘Taking a look at different types of e-commerce’, Journal of World Applied Programming, vol. 23, no 7, pp. 334-367. Reiley, L, Spulber, F 2000, ‘ Business-to-business electronic commerce’, Journal of Economic Perspectives ,vol. 13, no. 3, pp 534-589. Schneider, G 2007, Electronic commerce, Course Technoloy inc, Syndney. Tang, A, Liou, G & Peng, W 2008, ‘B2B brand extension to the B2C market’, Journal of Brand Management , vol. 15, no. 6, pp 399-411. Read More