Types of e-Commerce businesses
If there is one business currently rocking the world, It’s the e-Commerce. Just in 2015, eCommerce giant Alibaba raked over $14.3 billion dollar in a single day sales, locally here in Nigeria, the biggest online market place; Konga processed an order of over 100 million Naira in just 4 hours. That’s the power of eCommerce. eCommerce is the future and has come to stay and has taken the whole world by storm.
So what is e-Commerce?
e-Commerce also known as electronic commerce or can Sometimes be called e-Business, is a business model or concept that allows people to conduct business transactions over the internet. It can also be defined as the buying, selling and transfer of goods, services, funds or data, over an electronic network which is usually through the Internet.
eCommerce allows you to transact or do business online going against the regular brick and mortar system where you can only sell at your store. With the introduction of e-Commerce it has changed the way we conduct business.
TYPES OF e-COMMERCE BUSINESS MODELS
There are different models in e-Commerce that can be adopted, the type of e-Commerce model that you adopt is based on your strategy or the kind of business you want to adopt. I know some people might be wondering which the best model is, unfortunately there is no best and there is no worse, the model you adopt is dependent on your kind of business or niche. Here are the types of e-Commerce models that can be adopted:
• B2B (Business to Business)
• B2C (Business to Consumer)
• C2C (Consumer to Consumer)
• B2G (Business to Government)
• Government to Business (G2B)
• Government to Citizen (G2C)
1 Business – to – Business (B2B): The B2B model is the one in which one business transact or sells to another business. Eg A Company buys directly from the manufacturer.
2 Business – to – Consumer (B2C): is a model where a company sells directly to the consumers. Eg A site selling directly to users.
3 Consumer – to – Consumer (C2C): In this e-Commerce model it allows consumer to transact with another customer. This model allows consumers to sell their goods directly to other consumers (it could be new or old). Example is when a user buys goods from another user on a classifieds website.
4 Consumer-to-Business (C2B): This is another form of eCommerce business where consumer can posts their products and businesses can place bids. It’s common in auction websites.
EXAMPLES OF e-COMMERCE BUSINESSES
e-Commerce businesses comes in different forms, here are samples of some e-Commerce businesses, as you read, you should be able to identify them.
Online Stores: An Online store is a type of e-Commerce business that allows buying and selling of goods and services via a website or a web page. One thing common to all online stores is the presence of the shopping cart, which allows you to add products to a basket or cart (online) before proceeding to checkout. Usually in this model, the goods and all the services rendered is owned, managed and controlled by the owners of the business. It usually runs mostly a Business to Consumer (B2C), it could be a Business to Business B2B etc Examples are Jumia, Asos, HM, Bellevista, Slots , parktel etc
Online Malls: This is like an advance online store that allows many merchant open a store on the online mall and sell their products on the website. Online malls are websites that allows multiple merchants to sell on a site. It uses a multi-vendor checkout system which gives each merchant a portion on the website to display their goods. Eg Konga, Yangamall, Webmall, aliexpress, alibaba etc . In this type of business the merchants have control over the price of goods displayed, and there is a sharing formula between the merchants and the online mall which usually range from 90%-5% to 85%-35%.
Classifieds : A classifieds is an online market place that connects buyers to sellers, and the transaction is done without the interference of the Classifieds website, that is a seller posts an item on the site, a buyer sees the item, contacts the seller and the transaction is done face to face. Classifieds usually focus on different categories and sections eg properties, autos, jobs, services, general products, electronics etc. Examples of a classifieds business is OLX, Craiglist, jiji ,efritin etc
Online verticals: Online Verticals is more like a classifieds except that it focuses on a single niche. That is, unlike a classifieds that has many categories, an online vertical only focus on a single Niche , EG autos, properties, electronics etc that is if the niche is autos they will only advertise everything about autos (cars, lorry, trucks, SUV, trailer etc ) and they won’t list any other categories that doesn’t relate to autos. Examples are carmudi, checki etc
Deals Site: A deal site is almost similar to an online mall because the products displayed are being advertised by different vendors but there is a timeline on each product displayed on the website which usually range from 5 to 15 days, once the time runs out, the deal atomically goes off. Also in deal sites the merchant doesn’t have control over the pricing.
Price comparison: A price comparison site is a site that allows users to search, compare and contrast the prices and features of products and services. It is more like a search engine for products and services where shoppers can search and compare the prices, features and specifications of a products or service or filter the products based on some specifications or features. Examples are Pricecheck, NGpricehunter, Pricewatch, pricegrabber etc
Online Business directory: An Online Business Directory is a website that provides organized information such as name, phone number, email, address , description etc about a companies, business, services, institution, government agencies, NGO etc in a well-structured format is available to users online. Examples are Vconnect , Nigeria’s Business Directory, Nigeria Galleria
Hotels Reservation : This is a website where you can search for hotels, compare the rates between different hotels and make reservation. Eg hotels, Jovago and hotels.com.ng.
Online event tickets: This is a site that allows you register for events by booking or buying tickets online. Examples are eventbride, ariya tickets, afritickets
Betting sites: These are sites that allow you to place bets or gamble online via their platform. There are different types of bet that could be placed, it could be a casino type, lotto or sport betting etc Eg Nairabet, merrybet, baba ijebu etc
Online Bidding Site: An Online bidding site is another form of ecommerce business, where users can bid for goods and services. The user with the highest bid before the time runs out wins the bid. Just like online deal site, It also have a timeline.
Flight Comparison sites: These are sites where you can compare, book flight tickets and make reservation online. Some also allows you to buy directly while others allow you to compare the prices of flight tickets. Eg wakanow and travelstart
job board: A job board is a site that allows employers to post jobs and give applicants the ability to apply for the jobs online.
