OPPapers.com

B2C Vs B2B

Marketing Differences with B2B vs B2C

Courtney Spencer

March 19, 2007

eBusiness/ MGT 448

Keith Hopkins

Introduction
The array of eCommerce tools that are being introduced daily are evolving at a dizzying pace and are having a profound effect on the way organizations create value (Retooling).
The benefit of interactive technologies like the Internet and the Web has been immediately recognizable in the consumer space, where business-to-business (B2C) enterprises have always had to use strategies of relationship building, gathering and analyzing feedback and customizing products to fit consumer needs. What is becoming just as clear, however is that account management in the business-to-business (B2B) space, like consumer portfolio management in the B2C space is equally essential. Companies that provide products/services to other companies cannot afford not to engage and utilize this resource (Peppers,D.).
What is B2B?
Business-to-business eCommerce covers everything from Bob setting up a web site to advertising his auto body shop to General Motors using Web technology that permits customers to purchase an automobile tailored to a customer's taste to Ford employing an enterprise-wide resource tool to acquire the direct goods (components used to produce a finished goods such as engine blocks, axels and A/C units) and indirect goods, items such as office supplies, PCs, paper, pens and spare parts (Retooling).
One of the fastest growing sectors of eCommerce is business-to-business transactions. B2B eCommerce tools enable new kinds of relationships and provide new incentives and business models for what were once strictly buying and selling relationships. With B2B, business partnerships are strengthened and the relationship of partners is literally transformed from supplier/customer to true business partnerships where they collaborate at the same level on the value chain (Retooling).
For example, Nike does not manufacture a single pair of shoes, but...