Selling Online
e-Commerce – You Could be Selling Online
COVID-19 brought a wave of changes to the world, with thousands of companies closed and millions of jobs lost. To adapt and get back on their feet, many have turned to the world of e-commerce.
e-Commerce, also electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods and services through the internet. e-Commerce allows companies and individuals to transact on a greater scale than offline selling. It should be noted that e-commerce is different from e-business, which is about running an online business.
Types of e-Commerce
If you want to learn about e-commerce or want to take your first step into e-commerce, here are the four types, with examples, you should know about.
- Business to Consumer (B2C) – This is when a business sells its products or provides a service to the consumers. This is the most prevalent type you will see online. An example of this transaction is when you order a take-out through a restaurant’s website or app.
- Business to Business (B2B) – For this type, a company sells a product or service to another company. For example, a company that makes computer parts would sell those parts to a retail company that sells fully built computers.
- Consumer to Consumer (C2C) – C2C is when a consumer sells to another consumer. If an individual consumer is selling to another consumer as part of a business, then it is more B2C. A great example of C2C is you selling your old CD collection to an interested party through eBay.
- Consumer to Business (C2B) – This is when a consumer sells a product or service to a business. A great example is an online freelancer providing a service to a company. Another one is a Youtuber doing a product review for a company in return for a fee.
Common e-Commerce Methods
Now that you know the different models of e-commerce, here are some methods companies or individuals use when transacting with their target customers.
- Retail – This is direct selling from a company to a consumer without a middleman. For example, a furniture company using its own website to sell directly to consumers is considered retail e-commerce.
- Dropshipping – This is when a business sells and ships a product with the help of a third party. For this method, most businesses will not have the products on hand. They instead have a supplier who will make and send it once a consumer buys it.
- Online Services – When a company or individual offers its skills and technical know-how to a business or consumer for a fee. An example of e-commerce services is a social media manager offering to handle a company’s social media accounts for more effective social media integration.
If you think you could be selling online and need help setting up your own web store? Contact us now and let’s talk about it.