Top 5 E-commerce Business Models to Consider

Rating: 4.7/5
Posted On: July 24, 2023
Written by: Emenac Packaging Canada
Category: Blog

Planning to invest in an e-commerce business? This is the best time to take a start-up and make the e-commerce company of your dreams. But before you need to understand what e-commerce business is, and which e-commerce business model can be beneficial for you. The good news is, there are just a few e-commerce business models to consider.

In this blog, we have discussed the major e-commerce business models, and here is the breakdown:

5 Types of Ecommerce Business Models: Overview

Business to Consumer (B2C)
Business to Business (B2B)
Business to Government (B2G)
Direct to Consumer (D2C)
Consumer to Business (C2B)

1. Business to Customer (B2C)

Business to customer (B2C) is the first and very significant e-commerce business model to consider taking a start-up. B2C works as all these companies sell their product directly to the customer whether they are selling in physical stores or online. This business model can be broken down into further three sub-types.

Direct Selling

In the B2C model, direct selling is related to the procedure in which you sell your products straight to the people who are interested to buy them. In many cases, you create your online store, customers place orders there and you deliver those orders on their doorstep.

Online Middle-Men

In an e-commerce B2C business, an online middle-man act as a “man of the middle during a sale. For example, you are running a drop shipping business and selling products by a middleman or someone else. So, the other party may ship your product to the doorstep of your customer.

2. Business to Business (B2B)

Business to business is all about you selling your products to the vendors instead of customers. For example, you supply the material or products to the small vendors and those small vendors sell your products to the customers. This type of business is called Business to Business in which you don’t involve customers directly. B2B business is a very popular method in the digital sphere. For example, there are plenty of software development companies and software houses that applications or software to be used by other companies and businesses.

Similarly, Emenac Packaging Canada is also an example of B2B, as this packaging company creates and designs all types of customized packaging boxes for e-commerce businesses.

3. Business to Government (B2G)

Business to Government is also a method used to sell your products. This type of method involves government as your company signs a contract with government officials to sell their products to different sectors of the government. These can be state government or federal government. There are also some B2G businesses that even involve foreign governments to sell their products and services at the international level.

For example, there is a global security company “Lockheed Martin” which sells software, aircraft, security equipment, devices, and other materials to the US government in exchange for exclusive contracts. There are also some software companies such as Palantir who are also doing business while using the B2G method.

4. Direct to Consumer (D2C)

Direct-to-customer business is all related to business-to-customers B2C. But there is only one major difference that is complete independency. A standard B2C business includes a packing company, a shipping company, and a third-party company to fulfil its orders. But in the D2C business, these organizations are independent and perform all their tasks on their own. These companies ship, sell, and deliver their products direct to their customers without third parties or intermediaries.

Additionally, some e-commerce businesses also do this same thing especially when they sell digital products. But this thing is not for all businesses as you can only sell limited products without involving other companies in your entrepreneurial endeavours.

5. Consumer to Business (C2B)

Customer-to-business (C2B) is another type of e-commerce entrepreneurship. This method of e-commerce business mostly involves social media marketers and influencers. For example, influencers can turn their fans into their customers. And that audience may bring more customers to that influencer or digital marketer. After all these things, the brand or company pays the influencer a certain amount for advertising their brand. Almost, all customer-to-business people are service based instead of product based.

Most Common E-commerce Types of Business to Consider

Drop shipping

The drop shipping business is a revolution in the e-commerce industry. In this, you can connect manufacturers and buyers by selling their products to their customers on their doorstep.

Private Labelling

Private labelling is also an opportunity to earn a good profit from your business. In this type, you order privately labelled products from a third party and sell them under your brand name.

Subscription

Subscription-based e-commerce business means convincing your loyal customers to buy subscriptions from your brand.

White Labelling

This is one of the top-rated e-commerce types. This is similar to drop shipping because there is no need to make physical stores or sell products physically.

Bottom Line

So, after getting all the information related to the e-commerce business, you need to determine:

Which e-commerce business model is best according to your goals and business plan
Identify which business model fits your objectives according to your store design.
Try to find out which business model is easily achievable for your organization

These all are e-commerce business models for you. You can select one and expand your business with Emenac Packaging Canada. no matter whether you need to ship your products to your customers, or want to showcase your products on your shelves, we are here to help you with personalized packaging boxes.