There are 4 main types of e-commerce. Each of them has definite characteristics and strengths that affect communication with customers. It is therefore essential to understand, first of all, what kind of audience you are targeting and plan an appropriate strategy.
Let’s find out its peculiarities now!
There are 4 main types of e-commerce
- Business to consumer (b2c)
- Business to business (b2b)
- Consumer to consumer (c2c)
- Consumer to business (c2b)
1 – E-commerce Business to consumer (B2C)
Business-to-consumer e-commerce is the one most widely used for online purchases. In this case, the sales relationship is between a company (business), which offers its products or services, and an end consumer (consumer) who buys them.
The communication style is generally characterized by a direct and engaging tone. Indeed, it is essential to create a strong emotional connection with the customer. An excellent strategy in this regard can be to use a social strategy and multimedia sharing platforms in order to make the user part of the story of your business and put their products well in view.
2 – E-commerce Business to Business (B2B)
This model differs from other types of e-commerce because, in the case of B2B, buying and selling takes place between businesses. It often happens, in fact, that a manufacturer provides its goods or services to another business, and the latter reuses or resells them. An example is the whole industrial world, such as the sale of electronic components, the industrial automation sector, or even wholesale distributors, etc.
This time, the communication becomes more formal. The language used, in this case, is much more technical and professional because it is aimed directly at specialists in the field. All the company’s expertise for the sector, the advantages and efficiency of the services offered must emerge. The content will therefore be more directed to show the expertise and reliability of the provider. For this type of e-commerce, it is suitable to propose case studies and reports.
3 – Consumer to Consumer (C2C) E-commerce.
Consumer to Consumer e-commerce is represented by platforms where users (and therefore not companies) interact and sell products to other users. The best known examples are online marketplaces, such as Ebay, Vinted, and Subito, but there are many such portals.
Here communication should foster trust among members. It is recommended to focus on the trustworthiness of the platform and use reviews and systems to evaluate whether the experience on the portal was positive or not, also called rating systems. We can then afford a more informal style of dialogue, marked by trust and honesty.
4 – E-commerce Consumer to Business (C2B)
This time it is consumers (consumer) who offer services to companies (business). It is the rarest format to find, but we can try to think of all the websites where users provide reviews, multimedia content or advice. We can therefore say that it is practically the opposite of the B2C model. Other examples are online stores of images, photographs and digital elements.
It is important, in this case, to go to the value of consumer input. In fact, companies often try to make collaborations ongoing by teasing users with incentives or rewards.
The right communication strategy according to the type of e-commerce
Once you have identified the type of e-commerce you want to implement, an effective communication strategy can be developed, tailored to your target audience.
Whatever model you decide to use, it is important to try to understand who you want to address and adapt the discursive style according to the user you want to engage.
Our digital marketing agency designs any type of site and e-commerce and can help you develop the right marketing strategy both online and offline.
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