E-Business Operations

Purchase Process in B2B and B2C Business

There are mainly two forms of commercial transactions and these are business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses. In B2B business the products and services of one business are sold to other business directly and in B2C business the transactions are conducted between the manufacturing company and the end-users of the products or the services or in a word, the consumers (Liu and Sutanto, 2012). The Walking on Wood (WoW) Company has started their B2C transactions using the computer system and the website for various purposes of B2C transactions where, to provide customer enquiry services and to take the purchase orders are two of the most important transactions and these two procedures of e-business are going to be criticized here. After this the procedure of managing the price list of integrating suppliers and the process of placement of orders in B2C transactions of WoW Company will be explained.

According to Stulec and Petljak (2013) most of the total content of e-business website are developed with the suggestion of end-users or the consumers. Therefore, the writing of Bumstead, W. and Abraham (2008) suggests that the company should be available with their online customer support service for 24x7 with a separate and user friendly portal for the enquiry, feedback and suggestions in their website and he also added that the company should react appropriately to the negative feedback of the customers. Not only in the website but also the presence in the social media can be very much effective for the provision of customer care service (Schmale et al, 2013).

Consumers are going to purchase from the company some the products which have substitutes with huge competition in the market. Therefore, the process of taking orders from the end-users should be very simple and attractive (Drigas and Leliopoulos, 2013). Different gateways for payment, net-banking, debit card payment etc. should be available to the customer with very quick and the home delivery should be in full flow.

Influence of Professional Buyers on Buying Process

The professional buyers can influence the buying process better in a good strategic framework. The contract to supply can be negotiated effectively and the price lists can be updated in accordance of real time (Hawkins et al, 2015).

The fundamental difference in between the B2C and the B2B comes from the number of customers. The B2C business has much more customers than the B2B business. Under B2B business the mechanism of price and quantity in the market determines the sales of the particular company (Woodside and Baxter, 2013). Therefore, there is a high influence of the professional buyers in the buying process than the irregular buyers. A good strategic framework is required to exist for the better influence of professional buying.

The very interesting difference between B2B and B2C business can be rectified under the case of contracts to supply negotiation. Under B2C model the electronic catalogue is going to be used by the customers or more specifically the end-users but under B2B the selection of product is done considering the number of transactions and the volume of dollar (Aloini et al, 2012).

According to Plank (2015) company should be clear regarding the publication of price list to both the consumers and the other business firms in both of the business models (B2B and B2C) because both the options to purchase and to opt-out should be open to the customers. There is a common psychological problem which creates fear of losing own customer in the mind of the customers of B2B business because of the existence of feature lists, spec sheets, pictures etc. in the B2C business model (Seo, 2011).

Analysis of Purchasing Variables

The e-procurement is going to be analysed here. The supplies and services are purchased and sold over internet in e-procurement. It is one of the most important parts of B2B websites and it also refers to the other term called supplier exchange (Wright et al, 2014). The qualified and registered users are typically allowed to use the e-procurement websites to search the sellers and buyers of goods and services. There are some key strategies which should be used by the company to achieve the best practice of e-procurement.

Walking on wood is a leading company of West London and it is specialised in wooden parquet floors. The company may face pressure n purchasing and managing the supplier relationships. The use of procurement practices online is a growing trend in the corporate world and each company should follow the strategy of business in the modern world to achieve the success in business (Senadisai et al, 2015). There are numerous benefits of the use of e-procurement system in business and the customers also can enjoy advantages of rapid deployment.

Conclusion

The main recommendation to the Walking to Wood Company is the concentration of the company should be on the target market and the products of the company should be developed on the basis of the demand of their product in the market so that both of the business models can provide a high profit margin to the company. The company should promote their product by the means of advertising and there are several medium like, websites, social media etc. which can be used for advertising purpose. The further growth of the organization is dependent on the design of marketing plan and strategy of the company to achieve some organizational goals (Drigas and Leliopoulos, 2013).

 

References

 

Books

Wright, G., Harker, M., Sarmaniotis, C. and Wickens, E. (2014). Marketing Strategies and Practices in the Contemporary Environment. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Woodside, A. and Baxter, R. (2013). Deep knowledge of B2B relationships within and across borders. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Bumstead, W. and Abraham, G. (2008). Buying and selling businesses. New York: Wiley.

Fill, C. and McKee, S. (2012). Business marketing face to face. Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers Ltd.

Journals

Drigas, A. and Leliopoulos, P. (2013). Business to Consumer (B2C) E-Commerce Decade Evolution. International Journal of Knowledge Society Research, 4(4), pp.1-10.

Mansor, N. and Shaikh Ali, S. (2010). A B2C Business Agenda: Analyzing Customers’ Perceptions towards Bumiputera Retailers. ASS, 6(7).

Liu, Y. and Sutanto, J. (2012). Buyers’ purchasing time and herd behavior on deal-of-the-day group-buying websites. Electronic Markets, 22(2), pp.83-93.

Schmale, H., Ehrmann, T. and Dilger, A. (2013). Buying without using – biases of German BahnCard buyers. Applied Economics, 45(7), pp.933-941.

Stulec, I. and Petljak, K. (2013). The research on buying behaviour among group buyers: the case of Croatia. IJKBD, 4(4), p.382.

Aloini, D., Dulmin, R. and Mininno, V. (2012). E‐reverse auction design: critical variables in a B2B context. Business Process Mgmt Journal, 18(2), pp.219-249.

Hawkins, T., Gravier, M., Berkowitz, D. and Muir, W. (2015). Improving services supply management in the defense sector: How the procurement process affects B2B service quality. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 21(2), pp.81-94.

Plank, R. (2015). Deep Knowledge of B2B Relationships Within and Across Borders (Advances in Business Marketing and Purchasing: Vol. 20), by Roger Baxter (ed.) and Arch G. Woodside (series ed.). Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 22(1-2), pp.151-153.

Senadisai, P., Trimetsoon, J. and Fongsuwan, W. (2015). Lactose Free Milk and Dairy Product Purchasing Habit Variables of Bangkok Thailand Metropolitan Consumers. Research Journal of Business Management, 9(2), pp.364-377.

Seo, J. (2011). Elderly Consumers' Perception of the Purchasing Problems and Related Variables : in Ulsan Metropolitan City. Korean Journal of Human Ecology, 20(2), pp.365-376.