When it comes to e-commerce, everyone will definitely think of the e-commerce model. There is no doubt that everyone will directly say B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer) or C2C (Consumer to Consumer). It can even be extended to C2B (Consumer to Business), G2B (Government to Business) and other models.
After searching on Baidu, there are even many places that interpret the "C" in "B2C" or "C2C" as "Customer". What is explained as "Consumer" is almost always understood as "customer", which blurs the difference between the two. Maybe everyone understands it, but they are too lazy to explain it clearly.
I'm not trying to be "foolish," "pedantic," or even "boring." The understanding of these concepts has a lot to do with your business positioning, customer analysis, etc. And I believe that everyone can reduce a lot of doubts or troubles when discussing platform business in the future. In a real business environment, I have indeed encountered disagreements about the nature of the business due to differences in understanding of these models!
There are two points here that need to be carefully defined.
The first point: "C" stands for "Consumer", that is, consumers who purchase goods for purposes other than processing, production or resale. Is the end user (End User). Customer refers to the buyer of goods or services, which may be a manufacturer, distributor or final consumer. The issue to be explained here is that if a company purchases goods for its own use or consumption, then this purchase behavior should also be defined as consumer behavior and cannot be understood as corporate behavior. For example, PetroChina purchases computers through the JD.com website. PetroChina’s purchasing behavior is equivalent to personal purchasing behavior and can only be regarded as a large customer at best, while the JD.com website is still a B2C website.
Obvious:
1/ The end user of raw material goods is the production user; the end user of the consumer goods is the consumer (may be a company or an individual);
2/ CDE users are obviously what we usually refer to as B2B platform service objects. If it can be broken down into industries more accurately, the service content of B2B platforms in these industries may be more in-depth and professional, and more attractive to industry merchants;
3/ The popular term "B2BC platform" is actually a platform that provides services for categories ABC. B may be a buyer, but he may also be a seller. The reason is that these three have a common focus on "consumer goods";
4/ The role of middlemen (B) in the circulation of consumer goods is very subtle. It can be said that the more obvious its industry characteristics are, the higher the number of purchases and the amount of transactions will be. On the contrary, it exhibits more “consumer” purchasing characteristics;
5/ From the perspective of the buyer’s identity, many “models” can be extended, but most of them seem to have no practical significance. Unless, unless what? Unless there is obvious room for differentiated service!
in conclusion:
In the Internet era of non-face-to-face transactions, the analysis of user (customer) behavior is more important than the analysis of user identity, and can grasp the market more accurately. It can even be understood more directly as: the type of goods (consumer type and raw material type) determines the general direction of platform operations, that is, to whom (behavior) services are provided.
1/ The platform that provides services to CDE is a pure B2B platform. Its industry characteristics cannot be ignored. Its trend is to operate in the direction of "industry B2B". The services of industry B2B platforms are moving from comprehensive services (business information services) to "comprehensive +" "Transaction" service;
2/ CB provides commodity purchase services to BA, which can basically be summarized as the "B2BC" operation direction, mainly for "consumer goods". Domestic trade platform and foreign trade platform are its subdivisions. Strictly speaking, it is only "transaction-related services" "It's just a difference. Because there is basically no difference in the objects served;
3/ CB provides commodity purchase services to A, which is a B2C transaction service platform, which is relatively easy to understand;
4/ The direct transaction between A and A refers to a market-type commodity trading platform. The characteristic is that the commodities sold on the platform are basically non-repetitive, otherwise it will become a commercial behavior;)
Second point: B2B, B2C, or C2C, to be precise, represent a market orientation, an operational direction, an e-commerce operation model, or the application of an e-commerce platform. From the perspective of the nature of the platform (or technology), there is basically little difference in the platform requirements for operating B2B and C2C businesses. So, what does the e-commerce model mean? Then we have to analyze and elaborate from the core content of e-commerce: I think the focus of e-commerce is "commerce", and the core content of commerce is "transaction". Then, the answer is that the e-commerce model (or platform model) should be the transaction model.
For example, the C2C concept appeared during the period when eBay.com was popular. At that time, the eBay.com platform was mainly a platform for individual users to buy and sell second-hand items. Later, it became so popular that many merchants would sell goods through the eBay.com platform. Of course, there may also be many merchants who purchased goods through eBay.com. The diversified changes in website platform applications have made it meaningless to focus on C2C and B2C. Complying with the application changes of the platform and changing the operation direction of the platform are actually adapting to changes in the platform's service objects. But the platform is still the same platform, that is, it is a place that promotes and protects buyers and sellers to complete transactions. This is the most basic feature of the trading platform, which is the e-commerce model.
E-commerce model, that is, transaction model, I think there are two most basic types, trading platform model (providing a trading platform, but not participating in transactions) and direct transaction model (directly participating in transactions). Leave some space for everyone to innovate, haha
Let’s look back at the application of the several operational directions mentioned above:
What's the point of saying this?
1/ The "(large) B2B" operating model listed here is actually unclear in its positioning. It either moves closer to industry B2B or B2BC, depending on the type of product. In fact, according to Alibaba itself, Alibaba.com is a platform that provides comprehensive services, so it obviously cannot be regarded as an e-commerce platform, but can only be regarded as a commodity trade information platform. My understanding is that this is an embarrassment of the Alibaba platform. It is difficult to turn around a large ship. Not many adopt the "(large) B2B" operating model, but because it is too large and representative, it must be written down and explained clearly.
Another point, I wonder if you have noticed, when you read the iResearch B2B report, there is always a line of small words about the statistics of B2B transactions, which explains that the statistical method of B2B platform transaction data is "any link in the transaction should be applied to electronic "Methods of transformation" is indeed written with technical content. In fact, it is also a kind of guidance. In fact, last year, B2B trading platforms in certain industries did see a clear upward trend in online transaction volume. It is worth paying attention to see when iResearch will change its statistical method and adopt a statistical method similar to the online transaction scale of B2C platforms, haha.
2/ Personally, I think that the product functions of group buying websites have not been thoroughly explored, and the transaction model of group buying needs to be discussed in depth to attract more users to participate. Moreover, when will a group buying platform that allows companies to participate together appear?
3/ I personally understand that the original auction model, the instant purchase model in the auction platform, the reverse transaction model similar to PRiceline.com, and the recently emerged group purchase model, etc., are the innovations in the e-commerce model. Others can only be regarded as innovations in the operating model based on e-commerce platforms, that is, application innovations, or operational innovations in the industry (non-Internet industry). For the e-commerce model, it is just a replica application.
Do you feel that there is still some distance between it and actual operation? Then, I’ll give you two more reasons: After clearly distinguishing the e-commerce model, that is, the platform transaction model, and understanding it to a certain extent, you can basically determine the company’s general operation and management structure, and determine whether the business is for “commodity” or “goods”. "Supplier"; secondly, it also determines the general framework of website functions. Technical development also understands where product data is collected from, how many "management backgrounds" need to be deployed, developed, etc.
These two points are the most basic concepts. I hope it will be helpful to your actual operation and operation.
Finally, it should be noted that this article is not intended to change everyone's consistent understanding of the e-commerce model. Because in some specific circumstances, it is not impossible to continue to use the previous general terms.
Finally, a friendly reminder: Discuss more needs (clear target customers!) and less talk about model innovation. Don’t get entangled with innovation and lose the essence and direction of the business. Demand creation model.
- over-
Author: iResearch Expert-Zhuang Yan
Source of article: Please indicate the source link when reprinting from the solemn column of iResearch.