B2B and B2C Websites Alibaba-com and Aflac-com - Case Study Example

B2B and B2C websites: case study of alibaba.com and aflac.com Executive summary B2B involves exchange of information or products between two businesses instead of a business and consumers. It accounts for the rapid growth in revenue on online businesses. Great B2B sites need to be interactive; to have easy to manage open source content management systems; to have a custom landing pages for specified search terms; and to have a blog; a social media. Alibaba.com is an example of worldwide B2B website. Alibaba.com has an easy to manage open source content management systems; and have a custom landing pages for specified search terms. However, the web lacks a social media link that allows their customers to interact with one another. B2C are mainly concerned with selling their products to end user consumers. Good B2c websites are easy to use, are interactive, easy to find products sought and easy to manipulate. Aflac.com is an example of B2C website. It is interactive and simple to use. In addition, it uses real customers’ testimonials to market itself. Introduction B2B involves exchange of information or products between two businesses instead of a business and consumers. B2C websites are portals essentially designed to link customers to suppliers. B2C are mainly concerned with selling their products to end user consumers (Ehnert, 2009). This article discusses B2B and B2C websites. In addition it analyses alibaba.com as an example of B2B website and aflac.com as an example of B2C websites. Finally the paper makes recommendations on what can be done to improve these sites. Literature review B2B (business to business) over the internet is also referred to as e-biz. It involves exchange of information or products between two businesses instead of a business and consumers. It has been predicted that B2B revenue will in future exceed that from B2C (business to consumer) in spite the later having been the first one to come into operation. Research has indicated that money volume from B2B exceeds that from B2C 10 to 1 (Alexander, Britton, and Jorissen, 2007). B2B websites can be sorted into company websites, websites available to exclusive registered site users, product supply and procurement exchanges, specialized or vertical industry portals, brokering sites and information sites. Most B2B sites may fall in more than one of these website groups. B2B is thus an e-commerce between businesses which was preceded by electronic data interexchange (EDI) which was a limited kind of online B2B. B2B websites allows buyers worldwide to connect with global suppliers and vice versa (Villa and Antonelli, 2008). It allows global buyers to connect with wholesalers, suppliers and manufacturers on global arena. The B2B websites allows importers and exporters to post their selling leads or buying requirements. Membership on B2B website is either free membership or premium membership. Free membership allows any trader to create an account without incurring any cost (Ehnert, 2009). This type of membership however provides limited access to buyers and their buying requirements. On the other hand, premium membership is a paid membership where membership gives complete access to all the buyers alongside priority ranking of search results of buyers. The existing stiff competition in the market place requires that firms have an effective website as part of its marketing program (Ehnert, 2009). Today the website of a company is its face in the global arena. It allows the customer to interact with the firm in addition to helping in creation and breaking of relationships. Today’s generation Y customer prefers website platform for most interaction. Websites allow customers to interact through out the day. B2B firms which realize the importance of an effective website uses the website as the main platform for its marketing programs (Alexander, Britton, and Jorissen, 2007). An effective B2B website has an easy to manage open source content management systems (CMS). These systems can be easily be updated by non technical staff and allows the firm to easily add new functions through addition of modules without the need of writing new software code. They also allow the firm to publish its contents on an iPhone. Another factor which makes B2B website to be effective is its ability to engage the customer or prospective customer with compelling content (Alexander, Britton, and Jorissen, 2007). To engage here implies that the information available on the B2b website ought to provide content that is informative to the customer that can guide the customer through a sales and marketing funnel. The benefit of this factor is compelling the customer to buy or to initiate contact with sales. An effective B2B website also has a custom landing pages for specified search terms. These are pages on the site which are designed for search engine optimization (SEO). These pages have forms which capture the customer information. The B2B website also ought to be integrated with sales and customer relationship management (CRM) systems for them to be effective. This allows sales leads from the website to be automatically published onto the firm’s CRM system (Alexander, Britton, and Jorissen, 2007). The B2B website should also be integrated with a marketing automation tool to allow the firm to collect additional behavioural data from the firm’s website visitors. This also allows the firm to conduct lead nurturing with drip email marketing programs. Addition of a blog onto the website allows the firm to publicize its blog on other websites. This helps the firm to generate inbound links and to boost its search rankings (Alexander, Britton, and Jorissen, 2007). The website should also allow the firm to create a monthly e-mail newsletter which allows the users to subscribe via the firms website (Ehnert, 2009). The source of the monthly newsletter ought to be derived from the firm’s blog. The B2B website can also be effective if it allows the firm to publish how to videos on the You Tube links on the site. Once the firm has more than ten videos it ought to create a You Tube channel. Research has indicated that creation of You Tube channel with the right keywords can impact positively on the search engine results of a B2B website of a firm. An effective B2B website also has social media channels which allow it to communicate with customers in addition to being used as an employee recruiting tool (Adler and Clark, 2007). Social media that may be used in this case may include LinkedIn for publication of the firm’s profile and twitter or FaceBook for handling the customer service and support questions. The links and icons for the firm’s social media channels ought to be placed on the website. With such features, the B2B website is able to cost effectively promote the firm’s business and at the same time generate revenue. Contrary to B2B, B2C websites are portals essentially designed to link customers to suppliers. B2C are mainly concerned with selling their products to end user consumers (Alexander, Britton, and Jorissen, 2007). The main interest of these sites is to pass the products to the end user. Although business to consumer activities exist both offline and online, the acronym B2B is mainly used to describe the online activity. B2C businesses have been hailed for the rapid development of the commercial internet that took place in the 1990s (Ehnert, 2009). This resulted in large sums of venture capital that had consumers receive free online services and discounted shopping. This saw many people adopt this new medium of business. However, when the capital markets collapsed, many B2C firms were the first to fall and they fell quite rapidly. To salvage themselves, most of these firms tried to transform from B2C to B2B. A good B2C website ought to allow the user to find what he/she is looking for. The site must have a multiple ways of interacting with the customer such as email, phone and online chat which are clear from every single page that can allow the customer to seek any help from the firm (Adler and Clark, 2007). The site should also allow the customer to easily find the products they are looking for either by use of catalogue number, searching or browsing through various categories. Browsing should allow the consumers to narrow their choices by department, price, colours or attributes (Lehman, 2010). The site ought to allow shoppers to label items with different names if they are sending the items to different address as they add items into their shopping bags. The sites should have a photo gallery of items offered by the firm and the site should allow the consumer to zoom in to see more details of the items being offered. Analysis and comparison of Alibaba.com and aflac.com websites Alibaba.com was established in 1999 by Jack Ma. The site has since grown to be a world largest website. Alibaba.com is an example of B2B website. It has a huge range of free buyer tools and services which allows a firm to source for the right products around the globe. The firm’s main business is to serve as a directory of Chinese manufacturers connecting them to other firms around the globe looking for suppliers. The site makes it easy for any firm to buy and sell online anywhere in the world. The site facilitates B2B international and domestic China trade, retail and payment platforms, shopping search engine and data centric cloud computing services. Alibaba.com is the largest e-commerce website in the world mainly meant for small businesses. The site provides business around the globe with three marketplaces to transact online businesses. The first platform is the www.alibaba.com which is meant for importers and exporters. The second platform is the www.1688.com which is mainly a Chinese platform for domestic trade in China. The last platform is the Japanese platform www.alibaba.co.jp which facilitates trade to and from Japan. Furthermore, Alibaba.com offers a platform which is a transaction based wholesale on the global site www.aliexpress.com which is geared for smaller buyers seeking fast shipment of small quantities of goods. The platforms have enabled the site to have over 65 million registered users in over 240 countries. The Alibaba.com has adopted a strategy which allows small firms in China to build and manage their online business more easily. This is enabled by provision of business management software, export related services and internet infrastructure services either directly or through firm that the Alibaba.com has acquired. Alibaba.com is a free membership website for businesses. The site allows importers and suppliers to interact on global arena. The site is easy to use for both importers and exporters. It allows other firms (suppliers and importers) to interact with one another globally. The information provided on the site is informative since it allows exporters and importers to directly interact with the concerned firm from which they want to transact business with. The site has different categories from which customers can browse through or use search engines to get the products they are looking for. The site has blogs which allows it to publicize itself on other websites. Below is a screen shot of alibaba.com Aflac is one of the largest supplemental insurance providers in USA. It was founded in 1955 and is based in Columbus, Georgia. The firm operates in USA and Japan. Aflac.com is an example of B2C website. It has a clean and polished look. The site has made testimonials of its customers the main feature of the site. The site has effective animations that are integrated with great icons, typography and colour. The site allows customers to get direct quotes by just clicking on an icon at the bottom of the site. The arrangement of information on the site is strategic and in simple short clusters which allows customers to easily navigate through. The site is interactive and allows visitors to make calls and write an email. The site also has twitter as a social media which fits in well without interrupting the core products and services offered by the firm. Thus the site allows the firm to improve its brand awareness, build strong customer relationship and to increaser sales. Below is a screenshot of the aflac.com: Recommendations for improvements of the Alibaba.com and aflac.com websites The alibaba.com can be improved by including a social media link which can allow firm to interact with both the firm and other business partners. Even though the website allows interaction between businesses via email and phone, the firm ought to provide an interface where businesses can chat directly with potential customers. The aflac.com is a great website but it can make improvements by having a You Tube channel that can indicate some of circumstances that customers have found their policies handy. Such channels may be more informative to customers more than just words. Conclusion B2B involves exchange of information or products between two businesses instead of a business and consumers. It accounts for the rapid growth in revenue on online businesses. Great B2B sites need to be interactive; to have easy to manage open source content management systems; to have a custom landing pages for specified search terms; and to have a blog; a social media. Alibaba.com is an example of worldwide B2B website. It has great features that have made many firms around the world to connect with each other. B2C websites are portals essentially designed to link customers to suppliers. B2C are mainly concerned with selling their products to end user consumers. Good B2c websites are easy to use, are interactive, easy to find products sought and easy to manipulate. Aflac.com is an example of B2C website. It is interactive and simple to use. In addition, it uses real customers testimonials to market itself. References Adler, E., and Clark, R. 2007. How it’s done: An invitation to social research. London: Cengage Learning Alexander, D., Britton, A., and Jorissen, A. 2007. International Financial Reporting and Analysis, 3rd Ed. London: Cengage Learning EMEA Ehnert, I. 2009. Sustainable Human Resource Management: A Conceptual and Exploratory Analysis from a Paradox Perspective. New York: Springer. Lehman, M. 2010. Advertisement on Web 2.0 Websites as Exemplified by Social Networks. London: GRIN Verlag Villa, A., and Antonelli, D. 2008. A road map to the development of European SME networks: towards collaborative innovation. New York: Springer. Read More