What Are the Advantages of B2B and B2C to Conduct Business Using the Internet?
Businesses marketing directly to consumers, or B2C, and to other businesses, or B2B, have been transitioning rapidly to online business operations over the past decade. There are several advantages to doing B2B and B2C business online. Major benefits to using the Internet for business operations include increased exposure due to viral marketing, cheaper information delivery and reduced transaction costs.
Other People Are Reading
-
Printing Costs
-
Glossy brochures and other advertising material can get quite expensive in the offline world. On the Internet, however, a business can post just about any amount of information for a small hosting fee. Companies can host a website for less than $10 a month and post as much information as they want about their array of products and services for consumers or other businesses. Of course, this entirely eliminates expensive printing costs for product images and other information that is traditionally printed out on brochures.
Social Networking
-
Sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube provide accounts for everything from Fortune 500 companies to local businesses. Other members can spread the word about a business through these social-networking sites by becoming a fan or follower or posting links to a video. This results in a viral effect of free word-of-mouth promotion for both B2C and B2B operations. As an added benefit, it is generally free to join social networks and send messages through a social networking site for both large and small businesses.
-
Email Marketing
-
Autoresponder companies provide a service that sends out emails to customers and business prospects. A company can build a list of thousands of customer email addresses and send them company news and special offers from time to time. Email marketing also saves on printing and postage costs. Just the postage on one snail-mail campaign to only 1,000 people would cost hundreds of dollars. Both B2B and B2C businesses can save that money and email to the same 1,000 customers for less than $50 a month.
Telecommunications Costs
-
Companies can save on customer service expenses by using Internet resources. Simply having a thorough FAQ section on the business website can cut down on many customer inquiries. Additionally, conducting customer service through live chat can cut down on phone costs. Publishing a company blog is another way to keep both B2B and B2C customer bases informed. This cuts down on inquiries and telecommunications costs.
Payment Processing
-
In the brick-and-mortar world of business, businesses need credit card machines and personnel to take payments by credit card, check and cash. Online, it is possible to save on some of those expenses by taking orders online. Companies like PayPal, Google Checkout and Authorize.net allow instant payment processing. Online payments are more tailored to smaller B2C purchases, but some B2B transactions may fall within the limits of online payments processors. For example, the maximum amount that a PayPal member can send in one transaction is $10,000.
Finding B2B Business Partners
-
An added advantage to B2B businesses is the ability to find potential business partners over the Internet. In the past, it was very difficult to find B2B partners nationwide. However, most businesses have a website these days. Companies can use free search engines to find other companies that may need their products or services. A business that does B2B marketing can also use free resources like ThomasNet to find manufacturers in hundreds of product categories.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Michael Blann/Lifesize/Getty Images
