what is business to consumer b2c 
the term business to consumer b2c refers to the process of selling products and services directly between a business and consumers who are the end users of its products or services most companies that sell directly to consumers can be referred to as b2c companies b2c became immensely popular during the dotcom boom of the late 1990s when it was mainly used to refer to online retailers who sold products and services to consumers through the internet as a business model business to consumer differs significantly from the business to business b2b model which refers to commerce between two or more businesses business to consumer b2c understanding business to consumer b2c business to consumer b2c is among the most popular and widely known sales models michael aldrich first utilized the idea of b2c in 1979 and used television as the primary medium to reach out to consumers 1b2c traditionally referred to mall shopping eating out at restaurants pay per view movies and infomercials however the rise of the internet created a whole new b2c business channel in the form of e commerce or selling goods and services over the internet although many b2c companies fell victim to the subsequent dotcom bust as investor interest in the sector dwindled and venture capital funding dried up b2c leaders such as amazon and priceline survived the shakeout and have since seen tremendous success any business that relies on b2c sales must maintain good relations with its customers to ensure they return the company must regularly review its marketing for good performance and adjust it when necessary business to business b2b marketing campaigns are geared to demonstrate the value of a product or service companies that rely on b2c usually try to catch the eye of the consumer and elicit an emotional response to their marketing b2c storefronts vs internet retailerstraditionally many manufacturers sold their products to retailers with physical locations retailers made profits on the markup they added to the price paid to the manufacturer but that changed once the internet came new businesses arose that promised to sell directly to the consumer thus cutting out the middle person the retailer and lowering prices during the bust of the dotcom boom in the 1990s businesses fought to secure a web presence many retailers were forced to shut their doors and went out of business decades after the dotcom revolution b2c companies with a web presence continue to dominate over their traditional brick and mortar competitors companies such as amazon priceline and ebay are survivors of the early dotcom boom they have gone on to expand upon their early success to become industry disruptors online b2c can be broken down into five categories direct sellers online intermediaries advertising based b2c community based and fee based b2c in the digital worldthere are typically five types of online b2c business models that most companies use online to target consumers 1 direct sellers this is the most common model in which people buy goods from online retailers these may include manufacturers or small businesses or simply online versions of department stores that sell products from different manufacturers 2 online intermediaries these are liaisons or go betweens who don t actually own products or services that put buyers and sellers together sites like expedia trivago and etsy fall into this category 3 advertising based b2c this model uses free content to get visitors to a website those visitors in turn come across digital or online ads large volumes of web traffic are used to sell advertising which sells goods and services one example is media sites like huffpost a high traffic site that mixes advertising with its native content 4 community based sites like meta formerly facebook which build online communities based on shared interests help marketers and advertisers promote their products directly to consumers websites typically target ads based on users demographics and geographical location 5 fee based direct to consumer sites like netflix charge a fee so consumers can access their content the site may also offer free but limited content while charging for most of it the new york times and other large newspapers often use a fee based b2c business model b2c companies and mobiledecades after the e commerce boom b2c companies are continuing to eye a growing market mobile purchasing with smartphone apps and traffic growing year over year b2c companies have shifted attention to mobile users and capitalized on this popular technology 2throughout the early 2010s b2c companies were rushing to develop mobile apps just as they were with websites decades earlier in short success in a b2c model is predicated on continuously evolving with consumers appetites opinions trends and desires because of the nature of the purchases and relationships between businesses sales in the b2b model may take longer than those in the b2c model b2c vs b2bas mentioned above the business to consumer model differs from the business to business b2b model while consumers buy products for their personal use businesses buy products to use for their companies large purchases such as capital equipment generally require approval from those who head up a company this makes a business purchasing power more complex than that of the average consumer unlike the b2c business model pricing structures tend to be different in the b2b model with b2c consumers often pay the same price for the same products however prices are not necessarily the same businesses tend to negotiate prices and payment terms 