6 Types of Ecommerce Business Models That Will Work

6 Types of Ecommerce Business Models That Will Work Table of Content 1. Business-to-consumer (B2C) 2. Hybrid B2B/B2C model 3. D2C (direct-to-consumer) 4. Vendoo 5. Affiliate Marketing 6. Business-to-business (B2B) 7. Conclusion Ecommerce is a kind of business model that enables diverse businesses and individuals to seamlessly buy and sell things online. It acts as an incredible substitute for physical stores and helps businesses to have a wider market presence. The best part of this online store is that individuals can find a wide array of products compared to the physical marts and could get 24*7 accessibility. However, to get your online business on traction, you have to make strong strategies like business model evaluation, user demands comprehension, target audience, market, etc. On the flip-side, you also need to focus on effective digital marketing strategies like SEO, content marketing, advertising, campaign setup, etc. to drive impeccable traffic on your website. Not following these, can be detrimental for the business and lead to huge losses. With all these in place, the business model evaluation also plays an incredible role in its success. Here, in this blog, we will learn six types of ecommerce business models that will work effectively. Business-to-consumer (B2C) “The eCommerce model for business-to-consumer is also easy. It occurs when a company delivers goods to customers directly over the internet or from a handheld device. Business-to-consumer eCommerce businesses are those that you and I frequent daily to buy items like clothes, books, and cosmetics. Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba are among the top B2C eCommerce firms. It's also important to note that B2C businesses don't have to be entirely online like Amazon and eBay are. B2C businesses should also open a physical store and, if it makes sense, launch an eCommerce website. Wide apparel stores such as Nordstrom, J. Crew, H&M, and others are examples of this.” - Julian Goldie, CEO of Goldie Agency “I’m a manager for an eCommerce company that helps people find the best cable service where they live and we use a business-to-consumer model. We’re sort of like Google in the sense that our service is free for consumers to use and we make our money in other ways. This is a very good way to do business right now because, with no cost to consumers, there’s no reason they shouldn’t use your product or service. All you have to do is make people aware of what you offer, provide them with a great experience, and figure out a way to monetize what you get in exchange for giving something away. You don’t need to take my word for it, just look at all the big tech companies in the world that got there by giving something away to consumers and making money in another way. If it’s good enough for the Google’s of the world there’s no reason it can’t work for you too.” - Todd Ramlin Manager of Cable Compare Read More: How To Optimize The Load On Ecommerce Platform Without Harming Clients And Users Hybrid B2B/B2C model “We use a hybrid B2B/B2C model. We serve businesses by finding them leads and serve customers by connecting them with the businesses they're looking for. Though we make the majority of our revenue from the B2B side of things, I think it's important that we've had both. This became very evident during lockdown. Our organic traffic dried up overnight and the B2C side of our business stalled out because customers weren't looking for our services. We had to rely on the trust we'd cultivated from the B2B side to get by, then push hard to win back the B2C sector so we had something to offer the businesses and communities we serve.” - Dan Bailey, President of WikiLawn Lawn Care “We operate off of a B2C and B2B business model. We are primarily an ecommerce retail store that sells directly to our customers. They online shop and we ship their orders to their houses. However, we also partner with other boutiques who sell our clothing in their physical stores. This greatly benefits our business, because their marketing efforts often involve our clothes. Plus, our customers can have the experience of shopping in person if they choose (without it costing us to run the store) and the convenience of shopping online when they want to buy something from the comfort of their couch.” - Hosea Chang, COO of Hayden Girls D2C (direct-to-consumer) “I recommend a D2C (direct-to-consumer) business model. Selling directly to your customers instead of going through a retail middle man allows for greater innovation, faster growth, and a deeper emotional connection with your customers. It’s that emotional bond that creates the repeat customers and brand loyalty that is so vital to becoming the strongest competitor in any market.” - Chris Vaughn, CEO of Emjay Vendoo “Vendoo has made it easier for small business owners to sell on multiple marketplaces. Vendoo offers online tools to help cross-list reseller items, on multiple marketplaces in a matter of minutes. For most retailers, this is the most time-consuming part of selling online when you have to list items on multiple marketplaces. Now you can have this done at once on multiple marketplaces such as Poshmark, eBay, Etsy, Tradesy, and Grailed. Their software makes it convenient for any small business, from sourcing inventory to shipping orders.” - PhillipSugarman, Publicist at Pink Shark PR Affiliate Marketing “One of the best e-commerce business models I've found is affiliate marketing. What's great about this business model is not having to have physical products. You're promoting other business products or services and receive a commission for persuading that customer to purchase. While this sounds wonderful, theirs a lot of competition from other affiliate marketers, as well as a long wait time before you even see your first dollar from your marketing efforts. This model is opposite of the get rich quickly schemes. It could be two years before making decent returns from hundreds of hours of work.” - Troy DeVille from Carmelbaycoffee.com Searching for Custom eCommerce Solutions ? CONTACT US Business-to-business (B2B) “As a content marketer for a B2B eCommerce company, the business model that I’m most familiar with is business to business. The business model you choose should be based on who your customers are, though. In our case, we provide the service of payment processing to other businesses so B2B makes sense for us. Beyond choosing your business model based on who your customers are, I think B2B is a good model because businesses tend to purchase in larger amounts so you get big sales, businesses are usually ready to buy so they take less convincing, and the B2B industry is growing quickly so there are a lot of opportunities. For all these reasons, I think now is a good time to get into the B2B marketplace if you’re thinking of having an eCommerce business.” - Francesca Nicasio, Content Marketer at Payment Depot Conclusion E-commerce businesses have caught tremendous popularity in this digital world. For every small need, individuals tend to look for eCommerce sites and make purchases. However, getting success in the e-commerce business is not a game of day and night. It requires a lot of hard work, remarkable strategies, planning, understanding market demands, and many more. However, business model evaluation is an incredible part of its success. In this blog, we have learned six types of eCommerce business models that would work effectively for your business.

Kapil Panchal

A passionate Technical writer and an SEO freak working as a Content Development Manager at iFour Technolab, USA. With extensive experience in IT, Services, and Product sectors, I relish writing about technology and love sharing exceptional insights on various platforms. I believe in constant learning and am passionate about being better every day.