Selecting an ebusiness Model for B2C

There are as many business models in the B2C classification as there are novel and diverse ways of delivering products to the customer. ebusiness has given rise to many new and potentially revolutionary models on which a business can be based, so much so that some business models are now being patented.

There are several business-to-consumer (B2C) models that companies use to sell their products or services directly to individual consumers. Here are some of the most common B2C models:

1. Direct-to-consumer (D2C) model: This model involves selling products or services directly to customers through a company's own website or physical stores, bypassing traditional retail channels.
2. Retail model: This model involves selling products through traditional brick-and-mortar stores or online marketplaces. Retailers may purchase products directly from manufacturers or wholesalers, or they may work with distributors.
3. Subscription model: This model involves selling products or services on a recurring basis, often through a subscription plan. Examples of subscription-based businesses include streaming services like Netflix and meal kit delivery services like Blue Apron.
4. Marketplace model: This model involves creating a platform that connects buyers and sellers, such as eBay or Amazon. The marketplace owner typically takes a commission on each transaction that occurs through the platform.
5. Freemium model: This model involves offering a basic version of a product or service for free, while charging for premium features or additional services. This model is often used in software or app development.
6. On-demand model: This model involves providing services on-demand, such as ride-sharing services like Uber or food delivery services like Grubhub.
7. Crowdfunding model: This model involves raising funds for a project or product by soliciting contributions from a large number of people, often through online platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe.

Overall, the choice of B2C model depends on the nature of the product or service being offered, the target audience, and the company's overall goals and objectives.

Although we cannot discuss every flavor of B2C business model in existence, we can classify them into a few categories. These categories include:

1. The Information Intermediary (Infomediary) model
2. The Affiliate model
3. The Merchant model
4. The Web Community model
5. The Utility model

The following series of images below describes each of these models.

While business-to-business commerce refers to business transactions between companies, business-to-consumer models are those that sell products or services directly to personal-use customers. B2C or business-to-consumer companies connect, communicate and conduct business transactions with consumers most often by means of the Internet. B2C is larger than just online retailing and includes

1. online banking,
2. travel services,
3. online auctions, and
4. health and real estate sites.

The following links contain examples of B2C models.

1. Affiliate model
2. Merchant Model
3. Web Community Model
4. Utility model

In connection with use of their service, some sites using the Information Intermediary Model collect website usage data and traffic pattern data with respect to activity both within and across websites. We will discuss eMarketing and privacy in a later lesson. A site that offers a Web-based consumer-to-consumer shopping information resource might include the following features:

1. Registered users can read and post information about products for sale on any Web site, including price comparisons, product reviews, and recommendations and tips for purchasing. ·
2. Consumers can review information about purchasing and owning a car and choose from a list of accredited dealer networks, and dealers can reach online car buyers efficiently.

Business-to-consumer electronic commerce (B2C) is a form of electronic commerce in which products or services are sold from a firm or company to a consumer.
The search for an extra revenue source resulted in developers to think about building relationship with businesses and the emergence of two sided intermediary business model instead of the traditional one sided business models like B2B and B2C models prevailing in the industry. Most of the incumbent players like DistributedNetworks started diverting their attention by focusing on the B2B side of the business for creating a third revenue stream. Lately, companies started getting the pay off from this model by retaining their dominance in the value network by not leaving the interaction with customers. The experiment by DistributedNetworks with a local business dashboard is a sign of this. The business model of Gofpatterns, mobile application which rewards and offers mobile users simply for walking into stores and OOPortals. Media Solution's mobile advertising platform are examples of increasing business interactions in the consumer market. There is an increasing focus on Business to Business interaction in the market using intermediary model and this report intends to provide an insight on this.

There are three categories of online communications approaches between payers and physicians displayed in Figure 3-4. The first consists of separate and independent communication between a physician's office and a single payer. The second approach involves an "electronic intermediary", which allows physicians to communicate with multiple plans using a standardized format. The third method is similar to the second, but replaces the independent "electronic intermediary" with a "payer portal" administered directly by multiple collaborating insurers. From the physicians' point of view, the latter two methods may be more attractive since they eliminate the need for managing multiple formats and protocols dictated by different plans. Whether a single approach will end up dominating the marketplace is not certain. First, the HIPAA administrative simplification provision was designed specifically to eliminate the difficulties and inefficiencies of managing multiple formats and protocols, thereby lessening some of the distinctions between the approaches. Furthermore, in a competitive marketplace where insurers and intermediaries alike must cater to a heterogeneous population of health care providers, employees, and employers, a variety of products is likely.
In the next lesson, we expand the Brokerage model and identify its more common variants.