Doing business through multi-channel eCommerce platforms has gone thru the roof for sure! That is despite the fact that it is yet to reach anywhere near the proverbial sky’s limits! And that’s because there is no dearth of ideas and innovations. Everyday morning you come across a new technology or product which till a few hours in the past you never thought could exist! That is the speed of digital technology and also the speed of one’s imagination!
And if you thought every new idea appearing on the digital horizon is bound to take your business places, you could at times, be very, very wrong! And that’s because not every businessman (or women) does a thorough study to know the exact take-away from b2b ecommerce platform & b2c ecommerce platform!
Today we give you tips on how to judge and build the most effective multi-channel eCommerce business strategy which reduces your changes of going wrong and instead increases your reach and sales! To give a clearer idea, we take alcohol as our product which needs to be sold.
1. Study the audience to know their preferences
Alcohol everyone consumes. But does everyone consume the same alcohol? Governments like those in India give liquor production licenses based on raw materials used and the class of consumer who imbibe them. A country-liquor consumer shall never even look at any ecommerce platform to buy his drink because that class of consumers have no need for such mediums. Given their very, very local reach, they walk right across the road to the authorized country-liquor store. If he doesn’t get his fill, he might get it in the vend that’s 200 meters away. That’s about it.
Contrast this with an well-heeled industrialist who cares for his occasional super-premium single-malt 100-years old scotch whisky. He won’t ever go to a vend anywhere. Where he goes is to the high-end international e-commerce site which his equally well-healed friends have told him keep the stuff. In fact, he may have more than one site in mind while searching for his needs with each of the b2c ecommerce platforms having some or the other feature to keep the guest hooked!
It’s thus important to know who you are attracting your product. Besides the economic differences, there could be other of which the most glaring is the difference between B2B and B2C! Business needs are entirely different from that of individuals. In the above example, alcohol for industries shall NEVER be liquor! It shall ALWAYS be alcohol for industrial consumption! Both are different as chalk and cheese!
2. Study the product
If the consumers for a product are different, know for a fact that multi-channel ecommerce solutions should study products for differences therein. Kerosene is used as kitchen fuel in most low-income homes besides limited use in industries. A highly refined form of kerosene also exists which is never, ever made available to retail consumers or even high-end industries. Its only use is as aviation turbine fuel which powers aircrafts world-wide. If one does not take such differences into account, disaster is what awaits the e-commerce platform! If kerosene seems out-of-place, know for a fact that biscuits in packets are consumed by humans and those in powder form are fed to animals! Can one afford to not look at such differences?
3. Know for a fact that not all channels give the same output
https://www.indusuno.com/ is known for its line-up of hand-tools and safety gears and is predominantly a b2b ecommerce platform. But you could get the same products at Amazon and other known B2C ecommerce platforms. So why bother with the former? Because the former deals in a wider variety of products under every single head and gives better prices where products are picked-up in bulk! The latter on the other hand is best for those who don’t care much for differentiation and variations and only want to buy what is available! For them, the latter with its easy UX-UI and payment gateways make sense.
4. Know that with time, scale and scope of products, there is a likelihood that things may change
Continuing from the above example of websites exclusively meant for hand-tools and safety gears, know for a fact that when business catches up and sales are good, the seller is very likely to prefer a B2B ecommerce platform or anything else which guarantees ease of sale and better visibility with the right set of consumers. There shall be a presence on sites such as Amazon, a known B2C ecommerce platform, but it shall remain cursory at best.
5. For some products there has to be a multichannel approach to eCommerce business
Continuing the above example, where the market for a product like wireless low-power, low-speed drill-guns pick up in time, it is only a question of time before the product in all its avatars becomes available on multichannel eCommerce business platforms as the product is then being used not only by businesses and industry but also by lay consumers. The essential difference between both these platforms shall then remain the price range and the range of options.
6. Remember that every channel has its own limitation and scope. Plan accordingly!
Once again continuing from the above, a B2B ecommerce platform shall from its very outlook be meant for industry due to which it shall not have any bells and whistles and shall remain boringly plain vanilla! But when it comes to prices and variety in industrial goods, it could be light-years ahead of any B2C ecommerce platform.
The pluses and minuses of both B2B and B2C ecommerce platforms have to do with their respective consumers and what they demand. Yes, things do change but sometimes only so slightly. It thus makes sense to study things carefully in advance and plan accordingly!