The financial crisis that brought down economic confidence has spread to e-commerce. The worst time to feel the pinch is during the upcoming holidays when shoppers are expected not to buy as much as they used to. B2C (business-to-customer, as opposed to B2B or business-to-business) sites will have to revolutionize pricing and promotional perks such as freebies. Economic dire straits redefine marketing, altogether.
Both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) sites focus on what the customer wants and needs. In this time of economic crunch where spending is reduced, e-commerce sites will also have to focus on how the customer can meet his needs and wants. Normally, the B2C customer is an ordinary individual who buys on impulse irregularly. But, then again, these are not normal times. So, the impulse buyer may have curbed his or her impulses just a bit more. Its market is boundless on the Internet. This sort of market also used to be unpredictable. Today, it may be said to behave in a rather expected manner (i.e., behaving less, in fact). Before the economic meltdown, a B2C customer spends a comparatively shorter purchasing process on a B2C site. The customer simply used to come into the site,
decide, and make a transaction.
Both B2B and a B2C sites rely heavily on the buyer’s emotion and reason behind the purchase or business transaction. Marketing knows this too well. For the B2C buyer, his or her purchase will be made on the basis of security, status, quality, and comfort. All these are traditional factors in marketing values. It is a wiser B2C that can navigate these financially difficult times of curbed customer spending. Now more than ever, cost has become a heavy addition to the list of traditional marketing values.
A B2C is product-driven. One of the major aims of a B2C site is to make the customer do an impulse buy. Pre-economic crunch, a B2C site simply needed to drive up interest and customer curiosity for the site so that the potential buyer who happens to be dropping by the site will decide to purchase. Or if he dropped by to make one purchase that was earlier planned, he will hopefully decide to purchase more products. It used to be based only on instinct, desire, and impulse. There is a huge plus these days: cost. Gone are the days when impulse buy simply means giving in on an urge. The B2C site customer simply won’t buy right away these days.
Via internet news
