B2C Business Framework of eBay and Global Sources, Difference Between B2B and B2C Markets - Case Study Example

LITERATURE ON NATURE OF B2B B2C C2C B2E Table of Contents Introduction In scenario of internet, the main dissimilarity between B2C (Business to Customer) and B2B (Business to Business) is the function of the B2B website. B2B (Business to Business) involves the features of supply chain administration. These websites permit companies to deal explicitly with their suppliers as well as distributors using internet. Additionally, this business side involves permitting electronic transfer of business invoicing, orders and even payments’ processing. In addition, distributors, wholesalers and manufacturers are members of this class (ASStrategic, 2011; Laudon & Laudon, 1999; Summers et al., 2003; Turban et al., 2005). Moreover, B2C (Business to Customer) online portals are intermediary web based websites aimed at connecting the clients with their suppliers. A well known example of this type is eBay that is an online auction website. Another online portal Yell is an internet version of yellow pages and ZDNet online portal that is web based technology marketplace. However, all the kinds of these companies exist mainly on the web. Additionally, every web site that comes under this category can be categorized under one wide-ranging heading of B2C marketplaces. B2C is linked itself with selling products or services to the end-users. Normally, these websites are similar to lastminute.com website for a "good times" portal and Amazon that is online book retailers are examples of B2C. In addition, the basic purpose of these websites is to easily pass the products and services to the end user. However, there exists a small dissimilarity among them. They are in fact web based customer relation management (ASStrategic, 2011; Laudon & Laudon, 1999; Summers et al., 2003; Turban et al., 2005). Furthermore, a B2B website is aimed at dealing with other companies not the general public, on the other hand a B2C website sells openly to the end-user. Though, B2B websites generally manage many more as compared to just sales of services and products; but they are a web based platforms to carry out business dealings (ASStrategic, 2011; Laudon & Laudon, 1999; Summers et al., 2003; Turban et al., 2005). This report presents a detailed analysis of the major aspects of B2B and B2C businesses analysis. In this scenario I will present a deep analysis of some of the main aspects involved in these business frameworks. For this reason I have selected two top B2B and B2C business websites such as EBay and Global Sources business website. Global Sources This section covers the analysis of B2B website Global Sources. Global Sources is a well-known business-to-business media corporation and is among the major suppliers of trade with China. In this scenario, the business made use of English-language media to ease business from Greater China to the globe. However, the additional business sectors make use of Chinese-language media to facilitate businesses to trade to, and inside Greater China. Additionally, the business currently offers sourcing information to volume buyers as well as incorporates marketing facilities to suppliers. In this scenario, it facilitates a wide collection of people of over 1 million active users; comprising the world's peak 25 business retailers; to source more gainfully from complex foreign supply markets. The basic goal of the business is to offer the high quality and efficient means probable to promote, market and sell, Global-Sources facilitates suppliers to put up for sale to their buyers hard-to-reach consumers in over 240 nations (GlobalSource, 2011). Moreover, the business presents the majority widespread variety of media as well as export marketing services to the other businesses it serves. Additionally, currently it is offering information on over 5.7 million goods and above 262,000 suppliers yearly all the way through 14 online markets, 13 monthly print, 18 digital magazines, 73 specialized trade exhibitions, over 90 sourcing research reports per year all through 9 cities. In this way, the business suppliers obtained over 127 million deals guides yearly from buyers through Global Sources Online alone. Thus, the Global-Sources have been making possible worldwide trade for 40 years. Global-Sources' network holds approximately 60 metropolitans internationally. Moreover, in the head office of China, Global-Source possess 2,700 team associates in over 40 places and a community of more than 2.8 million registered web based clients as well as magazine readers intended for its Chinese-language media (GlobalSource, 2011). EBay EBay is a world famous B2C business platform that is a giant of online market that offers platforms for buyers as well as sellers to collaborate and trade approximately everything. In this scenario, a vendor lists a product on eBay, which comprises everything from antiques to books, cars to sporting products and a lot more. Thus, the seller selects to recognize simply products on bids for the item or to present the “Buy-It-Now-option” that permits purchasers to choose the products immediately at an unchanging cost. In a web based auction, the online bidding opens at a price the vendor identifies and remains on eBay’s list of available products for a specific time period. After that purchasers come to bid on the products. While at the end of bidding process, the buyer with the highest bid is able to get the products (eBay Inc., 2011). However, we can discover a lot of items on eBay auctioning website. Additionally, it has turned into a massive place for searching hard to locate products, similar to collectibles. Though, a lot of people as well make use of this website to look for products or deals similar to small household machines, electronics as well as others. Using this web site, people are able to shop through groups as well as through specific item list, or they are able to just browse products listings. Ebay does not sell only used products but they can be brand new as well as offered by small business stores that sign-up as products or business vendors. On the other hand, a large number of artists and craftspeople put up for sale a number of their wares by establishing eBay business stores. Moreover, producing these stores and smart sites inside the software boundaries of eBay business has turned out to be an attractive job for a number of web programmers (Ellis-Christensen & Wallace, 2011). B2C Business Framework of eBay The term Business to Consumer (or simply B2C) refers to the dealings performed between a business and end-user. A neighborhood business store can be an excellent example of business to consumer. In this scenario, the business store is a business that puts up for sale products to neighboring customers or end users. Another instance can be an e-commerce website, which presents services or products to people from any location of the globe. Additionally, online Ebay B2B Portals are aimed at facilitating global wholesalers, manufacturers, suppliers and exporters to join or collaborate with worldwide buyers and importers. In addition, this kind of portals facilitate traders to produce an account with them and discover novel business leads, trade partners, hot deals; trade shows newest buying necessities and a great deal, much more. In this scenario, a practical instance of Ebay B2B web based portal can be TradeKey.com (Ameen, 2011) and (Bricklin, 2010). Moreover, online Ebay B2C portals facilitate companies to sell products to clients and other companies. Seeing that, the eBay Corporation was initially launched as an auction website for people to put up for sale their products to other people, thus, it can at the present be recognized as a B2C web based portal since many businesses are at the present marketing their business products on this web portal to obtain end-users involved in their products (Ameen, 2011). In this scenario, eBay is not only fruitful, however it is as well turning out to be a main business market intended for selling a lot of kinds of products. Additionally, the sales "through" them are operational at an annualized pace of $9B. In addition, it is expected that they will sell the cars of $1B this year (making them number one in utilized cars online), as well as have 5 percent of the whole coin and stamp market (Bricklin, 2010). B2C Business Framework of Global Sources Global-Sources business is a business-to-business (B2B) media and e-commerce corporation, which is currently putting attention on China export marketplaces. Most recently, the value of shares of Global-Sources have been decreased dramatically. However, the Global Sources is still very strong in its fundamental B2B business yet after the latest downside review on 2007 revenue estimations revenue intended for 2007 is at the present predictable to be $182 million contrasted to $156 million in 2006 as well as approximately $112 million in 2005. Additionally, the business expansion intended for print media were lesser as compared to expectations, however according to Wall Street Mayhem they do not observe it as a difficulty going forward. In this scenario, the Global-Sources has formed a very powerful strategy for numerous novel Chinese-language online initiatives beneath the Global Sources product name in 2008 that is able to additionally speed up online expansion in Chinese marketplaces. Moreover, the growing volume of booths, the standard selling price for every booth should be up considerably in 2008 also (GlobalSource, 2011). Website Interfaces Both Global-Sources and Ebay businesses are presenting a great deal of support and capability in forms of smarter business support and functionality. In this scenario, both the business platforms are able to offer a great deal of enhanced support and capabilities for the better business working and operational support. Additionally, the overall user interface of the Global-Sources business looks more complex as it is only user friendly for the technical business people or corporate staff. In addition, it involves some technical terms and information complexities those require few time for the layman to grasp to the real idea (Warholic, 2011). Websites Information Content Offering useful website information content is one of the most important parts in marketing of a company on the web. Seeing that, the content is ruler and is the majority significant part of the equation. However, technical writing is significant when it approaches to tackling the requirements of an engineer. In this scenario, for a number of aspects Global-Sources business data incorporates well design information contents on the website. It also offers image based support for showing the real products difference. However, it involves more technical terms those are only understandable for specific class of business users. Thus, this website is specifically targeting the high level business class users (Warholic, 2011). On the other hand, the EBAY business is offering the information in a much better way that is simple and using easy business terms for explaining things from a layman’s point of view (Warholic, 2011). Marketing Marketing is very useful for both B2B Global-Sources and B2C EBAY websites. On the other hand, these two bodies are different. But, the general marketing policy is the similar in theory. In marketing to further businesses or people, one of the majority significant things is to setup high-quality associations. In this scenario, the B2B (for Global-Sources) or company to company necessitates a promise of time and high-quality customer service previous to ever making that initial sale. Additionally, in the business services and products vary however marketing, sales and publicity remains unchanged for all time. In addition, it is one of the majority significant features of a business. Thus, for the business it is necessary to consider it seriously. Moreover, the marketing strategies appear to be same at both Global-Sources and Ebay business platforms. Both business website are operational and offering comparable business promotional strategy. In this way, it offers better support to business and corporations. Thus, both the businesses are offering effective business and customer marketing and promotional support (ReviewEssays, 2011). Working Style Global-Sources and Ebay businesses are little bit similar in overall working style however this working style is extremely diverse for technical users. However, overall businesses are perfect in their working arrangements. In addition, there are some issues regarding the simple user for gaining a thorough understating of the overall topics. Recommendations Global-Sources and Ebay businesses are among top global businesses of their areas. These businesses are having a high level business capability regarding corporate support and operational capability. These businesses are operational in case of enhanced support for customer and retails. The main recommendation is about offering a much better online operational framework that can support the simple and less trained users of internet. Conclusion The main dissimilarity between B2C (Business to Customer) and B2B (Business to Business) is the function of the B2B website. B2B (Business to Business) involves the features of supply chain administration. This report presents a detailed analysis of the major aspects of B2B and B2C businesses analysis. In this scenario I will present a deep analysis of some of the main aspects involved in these business frameworks. For this reason I have selected two top B2B and B2C business websites such as EBay and Global Sources business website. Global Sources is a well-known business-to-business media corporation and is among the major suppliers of trade with China. EBay is a world famous B2C business platform that is a giant of online market that offers platforms for buyers as well as sellers to collaborate and trade approximately everything. Ebay’s B2C portals facilitate companies to sell products to clients and other companies. Global-Sources business is a business-to-business (B2B) media and e-commerce corporation, which is currently putting attention on China export marketplaces. Both Global-Sources and Ebay businesses are presenting a great deal of support and capability in forms of smarter business support and functionality. The main recommendation is about offering a much better online operational framework that can support the simple and less trained users of internet. References Ameen, S., 2011. Difference Between B2B and B2C Explained Thoroughly. [Online] Available at: http://community.tradekey.com/article-34/Difference_Between_B2B_and_B2C_Explained_Thoroughly.html [Accessed 24 July 2011]. ASStrategic, 2011. What Is The Difference Between B2B And B2C. [Online] Available at: http://www.akstrategic.com/b2b-or-b2c.php [Accessed 26 July 2011]. Bricklin, D., 2010. What's been successful in B2C. [Online] Available at: http://www.bricklin.com/b2csuccess.htm [Accessed 23 July 2011]. eBay Inc., 2011. What is eBay? [Online] Available at: http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/questions/about-ebay.html [Accessed 24 July 2011]. Ellis-Christensen, T. & Wallace, O., 2011. What Is eBay®? [Online] Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-ebay.htm [Accessed 26 July 2011]. GlobalSource, 2011. About Global Sources. [Online] Available at: http://www.corporate.globalsources.com/PROFILE/BGROUND2.HTM [Accessed 25 July 2011]. Laudon, K.C. & Laudon, J.P., 1999. Management Information Systems, Sixth Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ReviewEssays, 2011. B2b And B2c Marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.reviewessays.com/print/B2B%20Global-Sources-B2C%20Ebay-Marketing/53122.html [Accessed 22 July 2011]. Summers, J. et al., 2003. Essentials of Marketing. Australia: Thomosn. Turban, E., Leidner, D., McLean, E. & Wetherbe, J., 2005. Information Technology for Management: Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy. New York: Wiley. Warholic, J.A., 2011. Internet Marketing Services for B2B and B2C with Professional Web Services. [Online] Available at: http://pwebs.net/m/b2b-b2c-marketing-how-to-guide/#understanding_the_business [Accessed 26 July 2011]. Read More