[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/10\/18\/b2c-b2b-ecommerce-revenue\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/10\/18\/b2c-b2b-ecommerce-revenue\/","headline":"B2C and B2B e-commerce meet: New revenue streams and cost savings","name":"B2C and B2B e-commerce meet: New revenue streams and cost savings","description":"There\u2019s an interesting shift occurring in the e-commerce world: The convergence of three important digital selling channels \u2013 B2C e-commerce, B2B e-commerce, and marketplaces.","datePublished":"2017-10-18","dateModified":"2021-07-26","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/brian-beck\/#Person","name":"Brian Beck","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/brian-beck\/","identifier":182,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/97f46accbfe54d4ef9f1b1097ccd4a541d14f04f611b69e9501cfadc889bb580?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/97f46accbfe54d4ef9f1b1097ccd4a541d14f04f611b69e9501cfadc889bb580?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/B2C-and-B2B-e-commerce.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/B2C-and-B2B-e-commerce.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/10\/18\/b2c-b2b-ecommerce-revenue\/","about":["B2C Commerce",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/","name":"Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q26643"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/customer-experience-general\/","name":"Customer Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_experience","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q984142"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/sales\/sales-general\/","name":"Sales","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sales","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q194189"]}],"wordCount":1417,"keywords":["B2B","B2B Sales","B2C","Cloud","Commerce","Customer Engagement","Customer Experience | CX","Digital Commerce","Digital Transformation","E-commerce","M-commerce","Marketing","Sales","SAP Commerce Cloud","Touchpoints"],"articleBody":"There\u2019s an interesting shift occurring in the e-commerce world: The convergence of three important digital selling channels \u2013 B2C e-commerce, B2B e-commerce, and marketplaces. Forward-looking companies can take advantage of this trend to capture significant revenue growth and cost savings opportunities, and do so in a more capital-efficient way than ever before.There are three legs of the e-commerce channel stool:B2C selling, which entails selling directly to consumers on e-commerce websitesB2B selling, which involves selling directly to businesses on e-commerce websites (traditionally called \u2018portals\u2019 by many manufacturers and distributors)Online marketplaces, which revolve around selling to consumers and businesses via websites like\u00a0Amazon\u00a0and\u00a0Jet      Digital marketplaces: Examples, benefits, strategies                Digital marketplaces are growing fast. Here's everything you need to know about digital marketplaces, including examples, benefits, and strategies for jumping on the bandwagon.      B2C e-commerceB2C e-commerce has been around since the mid-1990s, when pioneers like Amazon, eBay, Dell, Footlocker, and others first launched online storefronts and began selling online.Since this time, consumer-focused e-commerce has become the driver of retail growth in the United States, with Amazon accounting for over 40% of all online commerce growth in recent years.The B2C sector is mature, and highly competitive, with well-established best practices and technology platforms available to support the sector.      The future of omnichannel: Manufacturing, D2C, data in e-commerce era                Whether B2B or B2C, it's no longer enough to survey customers. To engage, retain, and earn customers, brands must understand buying habits and behavioral patterns.      B2B e-commerceB2B e-commerce is a fast growing and still-maturing sector of e-commerce, and, in absolute sales numbers, more than twice the size of B2C e-commerce.Large manufacturers and distributors have deployed e-commerce through web portals and direct integrations to their customers systems for many years.\u00a0These systems were typically built using expensive custom technology, which has limited the number and type of B2B companies engaging in e-commerce.When executed correctly, the benefits are tremendous, with incremental revenues from existing customers, new customers, and cost savings being realized. In the past three years, as this market heats up, additional technology solutions are becoming available that reduce the cost and complexity of deploying e-commerce for these organizations.The third leg of the e-commerce stool is online marketplaces.\u00a0This sector is largely driven by Amazon, which accounted for\u00a043% of all online sales\u00a0in the United States in 2016. Other channels like\u00a0Walmart\u2019s Jet are making inroads, too. Niche marketplaces also exist that cater to specific interests or product categories.\u00a0Examples include\u00a0Lyst,ShopStyle,\u00a0Tradesy,\u00a0BuildDirect,\u00a05Miles, and\u00a0Farfetch, among others.Both retailers and B2B companies (manufacturers, distributors, brands) can take advantage of marketplaces as a growth channel for their business.The influence of marketplaces is increasing.\u00a0According to a recent survey by Amazon.com and Pymnts.com,\u00a064% of shoppers\u00a0begin their online searches on marketplaces. More customers begin their journeys at Amazon and similar platforms than perform Google searches, social media searches, and searches on their favorite retailer\u2019s website.We can expect this trend to continue, as\u00a0online marketplaces are growing\u00a0at a pace of 22% per year. This is a clear signal to merchants – if organizations want their e-commerce game to reach its full potential, it is critical that they implement an online marketplace strategy.There is good news for merchants in all of this, and it starts with a story about convergence.      Best examples of B2B e-commerce: Companies winning the game                B2B buyers have changed. How are companies keeping up? Here are five brands that provide shining examples of B2B e-commerce.      What convergence means for sellersThanks to new-world solutions, it\u2019s easier than ever for sellers to dramatically grow their businesses in new sales channels.The convergence of the capabilities of technology solutions around each of the \u2018legs of the stool\u2019 is enabling retailers, brands, manufacturers, and distributors to easily and more cost effectively expand into new sales channels. From Amazon to Jet to the niche marketplaces listed above, there are more options available than ever for e-commerce operators wishing to expand.      With the rise of B2B marketplaces, what happens to traditional sales?                B2B marketplaces are springing up across a variety of industries. What are they, and how do they impact traditional B2B sales?      con\u00b7ver\u00b7gencek\u0259n\u02c8v\u0259rj\u0259ns\/nounThe merging of distinct technologies, industries, or devices into a unified whole(Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary)Evolving e-commerce solutions today are enabling merchants to drive sales through any channel.\u00a0This is exciting for merchants, as it gives companies a single place to service multiple channels.Companies can manage their retail, direct-to-consumer, B2B e-commerce, and online marketplace presences with products and product feeds that customers can access wherever they are shopping.Quite simply, convergence allows sellers to widen their reach tremendously without having to manage broadly distributed and inconsistent data, order information, customer profiles, and inventory held in multiple, disparate systems that don\u2019t talk with each other.Fewer resources are required to manage product data, marketing, merchandising, and selling operations\u2014which helps strengthen the company\u2019s bottom line.      How customer data management can unlock growth and power revenue                When you go beyond identity and descriptive data, and get into more qualitative or attitudinal data, you can learn a lot about what\u2019s important to your customers. Good customer data management lets you do just that.      The emergence of the all-channel platformWe see convergence happening on several fronts. B2C e-commerce platforms are moving to support B2B features and marketplaces.\u00a0At the same time, B2B e-commerce platforms are enabling sellers to launch B2C e-commerce and marketplace capabilities.B2C platforms have traditionally served retailers who are targeting consumers. Now, these solutions are evolving to support B2B e-commerce as well.Businesses can leverage these solutions to begin selling to business customers (such as resellers and traditional wholesale customers) on platforms mainly designed for retailers to sell to consumers.These all-channel platforms are building on a long history of creating very strong connections with consumers through superior digital user experiences. E-commerce solutions with this B2C DNA are built and optimized for fast and easy shopping transactions, and incorporate best practice features that shoppers of all types (consumers, business buyers, marketplace shoppers) have come to expect.CX-friendly features like the following are completely built into these platforms:great navigationcategory merchandisingon-site searcheasy and clear checkout processesmultiple payment and shipping methodsBy adding important B2B features such as workflows and permissions, custom contract-level pricing, custom catalogs, punch out support, and payment on purchase orders, these solutions are enabling merchants to sell not only directly to consumers, but to drive efficiencies in traditional selling channels and reach new business customers.Similarly, these solutions have added capabilities to provide product feeds to marketplaces, enabling syndication of product information to marketplaces.\u00a0With additional capabilities to ingest order information back into the system, the merchant has a single point of management across all sales channels, driving efficiencies and enabling more rapid and effective response to market trends.The trend towards convergence is happening on the B2B side as well. B2B e-commerce platforms that have generally served manufacturers and distributors are moving into the B2C e-commerce space, enabling manufacturers to sell directly to consumers, as well as on marketplaces.Traditional B2B platforms are adopting best practices and features from the B2C e-commerce world, and empowering merchants along the way. A great example is one of our clients that has traditionally sold measurement tools to companies like Boeing. Leveraging their converging e-commerce platform, they recently started selling their products directly to consumers. Along the way, they discovered an entirely new market of do-it-yourselfers that they didn\u2019t know existed – and have added millions of dollars in revenue as a result. Without easy to deploy B2C capabilities that were added to their e-commerce platform, it is unlikely they would have discovered this new market segment.The evolution of technology has made it easier than ever for e-commerce sellers to reach out to their customers across a variety of mediums. If you\u2019re stuck with a platform that doesn\u2019t evolve, it\u2019s time to consider switching to one that can support your online revenue growth.  B2B buyers want a B2C experience \u2013that’s why top sellers are using a hybrid commerce game plan.Get it HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2017","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/\/10\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"18","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/\/10\/\/18\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"B2C and B2B e-commerce meet: New revenue streams and cost savings","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2017\/10\/18\/b2c-b2b-ecommerce-revenue\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]