“Focus on the core problem your business solves and put out lots of content and enthusiasm and ideas about how to solve that problem.” – Laura Fitton
Online presence has become an elementary necessity for businesses these days. Going digital provides a competitive edge over competitors who lack online presence hence digital outreach. To gain a crucial upper hand in challenging markets, going digital can get you a head start. Today the universal truth in entrepreneurship is that “ignoring online presence is like opening a business but not telling anyone.” This article will guide what model you can adopt to propel your business online successfully.
Just think about what you did 7 to 8 years back when you wanted to buy a new furniture item or even clothes? Compare it with what you are doing in this epoch? You will get an idea of why your business’s online presence is imperative, and the impact internet-age e-commerce can have on making or breaking a company. In the United States alone, it is expected that online retail sales will exceed $700 billion until 2023.
Almost overnight, the Internet’s gone from a technical wonder to a business must. – Bill Schrader
Adaptability in the modern world allows exponential business growth and can earn marginally better profits. It is observed that consumers tend to quickly do a google search about the business when they develop an interest in your product or service.
Online Business Models
These four business models are the base of online businesses.
Business to consumer (B2C)
Business to consumer model focuses on the direct sale from a company to the consumer. The idea is to engage and mature a customer via a website built around the products. The consumer can explore product features and compare their choice before making a decision. Tips on identifying market trends are also available to spot best selling or buying trends.
A clothing brand is a prime example of the business to consumer model. Its popularity is growing exponentially every passing day. According to a survey, around 59 percent of Americans bought a clothing item online in the past 12 months.
Almost every product can be marketed and sold via an e-commerce store. The following steps can be followed to initialize the process.
- Analyze the product base of your business.
- Set up an e-commerce website
- Catalog your products with appropriate details
- Gain traffic on your website and make sales
- You can market the product/service to the target audience via AdSense, Facebook, or Instagram.
Business to Business (B2B)
Business to business models refers to business selling their products to another company. The recipient of the service or the product can be an end-user, or resale the product to another firm or consumer. This approach is innovated by giants like Ali Express, where mass manufacturers can sell their products globally to other businesses just like a B2B marketplace. You can consider marketing the products on such platforms if you are interested in bulk sales.
Consumer to Business (C2B)
This approach gave rise to the freelancing marketplaces. Consumers sell their services to the businesses, and the models revolve around acquiring services of consumers (mostly a freelancer) via a business or a customer.
The model was innovated by Upwork in its early days and is now one of the most rapidly growing business prospects in youth.
The competitive edge of the model stems from the freedom authorized to consumers to price their services or directly compete with the businesses. Recent innovators in the field include Freelancer and Fiverr.
Consumer to consumer (C2C)
A consumer to consumer business model connects two customers who can exchange, sale, or buy products and services. C2C models propel on the self-growth model.
eBay, Craigslist, and OLX are vital players in C2C businesses. A significant issue that C2C platforms face is quality control and assurance as scamming and fraud can occur easily.
Methods of delivery
This part is where it gets competitive and tricky. The value delivery method is the core of your business model and gets you a competitive edge over others. The following are a few popular approaches being applied by industry leaders.
White label/private label
White labeling is used when a business buys a product from a distributor and sells it with its brand name.
While in private labeling, a retailer hires a manufacturer to manufacture expensive goods and products and sell them under their label exclusively.
AliExpress is filled with manufacturers who can help in private and white labeling.
Direct to customers (D2C)
It refers to selling products direct to customers without the middleman. This approach gained immense popularity in the dot com era but is around since the ancient time when people did not know any modern modes of transportation and exchanged products for products or currency.
D2C creates a better brand for customer relationship and diminishes the chances of bogus products. A company can be held accountable for subpar quality while A model can be employed by retail stores, farms, clothing brands, etc.
Subscription-based services
Subscriptions are around for a long time, with examples from the 1600s when publishing companies used to deliver subscription-based services to consumers like books and magazines.
Currently, almost every online business is providing subscription services. The technique can be instrumental in increasing brand loyalty among customers.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a prevalent method in online business models where you are not required to keep any stock or inventory. A drop shipper acts as a middleman and connects the buyer to the manufacturer. In this way, an entrepreneur does not have to go through hassles of manufacturing, storing, selling, and shipping to the customer. Investment guides for beginners are a useful tool while scouring horizons of drop shipping business.
Software as a service (SaaS)
SaaS is attracting immense popularity amongst small businesses. It is a software distribution model in which a software service provider hosts the applications, websites, and software for small services, saving businesses from a high cost of software development.
Various SaaS services are in almost every industry, from accounting to customer relationship management (CRM). According to ResumeCroc the are 7000+ jobs availbale of (SaaS) Managers in London every month.
Tools that can aid in online business
The best tools to utilize to enhance your online business are mobile applications and eCommerce websites that can help in achieving a better outlook and service quality to the customers. Additional add-ons like online payments and replacement policies are added benefits to attract and retain new customers. According to Digital marketing experts from Cognizantt, who run many projects like Essay lab who is famous for his literature review writing services in UK, Different online tools from google like search console and google analytics help him to track their website traffic and conversions, as we know good content is the backbone of website success. So, they use many tools like plagiarism checker and Grammarly to write quality content.
Take a risk and keep testing, because what works today won’t work tomorrow, but what worked yesterday may work again. – Amrita Sahasrabudhe