by Nicolette V. Beard
10/03/2024
Starting a retail business is not for everyone. The cash outlay for rental space, build-out, furniture, and fixtures is significant; equipment, such as point-of-sale and modern phone systems require expert installers; qualifying for a bank loan to fund it all can be daunting.
On the other hand, business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce can be launched with an idea and a credit card. Okay, it's more complicated than that.
There are challenges and roadblocks to starting an online store, but the technology exists (i.e. ecommerce platforms) that make entrepreneurship possible for the digitally savvy.
B2C ecommerce involves transactions between a business offering products or services directly to consumers without intermediaries. Whether ordering a new pair of shoes on Amazon, buying groceries with Instacart, or subscribing to an online course through a digital hub, you’re participating in B2C ecommerce.
Success in B2C hinges on creating user-friendly websites, personalized marketing, and exceptional customer service. That takes time, which can be challenging if your expectations and growth goals are unrealistic.
The benefits of selling online — a gateway to international marketplaces, access to new customers, greater flexibility and scalability — can far outweigh the challenges.
As global internet access and adoption continues its upward trajectory, the number of online shoppers shows no signs of slowing.
According to Statistica, B2C ecommerce is projected to surge, with global retail revenues projected to grow by over 50% from 2024 to 2029,
With numbers like that, the opportunities for digital retail are endless.
Types of B2C ecommerce models
There are several types of B2C business models, including:
Direct sellers.
Direct sellers — sometimes referred to as direct-to-consumer (DTC) sellers — are the most common online B2C business model and rely on customers making online sales directly from the seller.
These stores sell products either from their brand or alternative brands.
B2C dropshipping.
With B2C dropshipping, businesses do not have to hold inventory; they only place product orders as they come in. The packaging, shipping or storage costs fall on the supplier.
For online retailers, wholesalers and small businesses, dropshipping can be beneficial because it cuts down costs, providing the business with more cash flow and potential revenue.
Online intermediaries.
Online intermediaries act as the link between buyers and sellers. They do not own products, services or brands — their job is to provide a platform for the buyers and sellers to trade.
Larger companies that act as online intermediates include Etsy and Expedia.
Community-based.
With community-based ecommerce sites, businesses leverage online forums and communities with a large user base related to the products and services they wish to sell.
By using these platforms, businesses can take advantage of a pre-existing space to promote and raise awareness of their ecommerce solution.
Fee-based.
A fee-based ecommerce model charges customers via subscription in exchange for using their website and unrestricted access to their content.
In the online world, this is an increasingly common B2C business model. Companies that use it include Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu.
Advertisement-based.
Advertisement-based B2C ecommerce does not own any products or services. They drive traffic to a website using online content to promote the business.
They sell ads for products and services other companies own. Social media platforms, like Twitter, and media companies like The New York Times and Reuters offer this type of B2C ecommerce.
Benefits of B2C ecommerce
There are pros and cons to any ecommerce business model you choose. When you weigh the benefits of an online store with a brick-and-mortar business, you'll know that your decision to build an online business was a good one.
Customer experience.
The beauty of B2C ecommerce is that it can take personal service to the next level. You can gather more customer data, tailor marketing efforts, and provide seamless shopping experiences.
Notable brands like Nordstrom and Nike, have elevated the customer experience by providing a bridge between on- and offline shopping experiences. By eliminating common shopping pain points, they demonstrate hyper-personalization with creativity and flair.
Data gathering.
When your business is moved online, you open the way to more information about your customers — which means more ways to target them directly.
Through online tools like Google Analytics, you can uncover demographic information about customers and craft detailed customer profiles. This can inform how you talk to customers and which ones you should be pursuing.
Trackable, personalized marketing.
With online B2C ecommerce, a business can better segment customers to personalize their B2C marketing campaigns. Marketing personalization allows you to see where customers are in their customer journey and optimize your media spend to match.
Using different online marketing strategies and tools, you can also track metrics such as SEO, conversion rates, shopping cart abandonment rates and ecommerce website traffic.
Global reach.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of B2C commerce is its expansive reach, crossing borders and spanning the globe.
Whether you're a small commerce business operating out of a single location or represent a massive conglomerate, online B2C ecommerce you can sell to potential customers worldwide, often regardless of the product or service.
No need for physical presence.
Every transaction takes place online with B2C ecommerce, removing the need for physical storefronts.
By eliminating the need for a physical location, businesses can cut expensive overhead costs like rent, taxes, maintenance, utilities and insurance.
If you’re a dropshipper selling internationally, you can limit costs related to inventory and warehouse space.
Examples of B2C ecommerce stores
How do you capture the essence of a brand and communicate it to an easily distracted audience? How do you move a customer toward a desired action without losing them? How do you secure that final click to buy?
Those questions are what keep ecommerce Web marketers up at night.
Consider that the average shopping cart abandonment rate stands at 70.19%. Two-thirds of online shoppers decide to exit their virtual cart. Those B2C ecommerce businesses that can increase their performance metrics, represent examples you'll want to follow.
Here are a few of our favorites.
Saddleback Leather Company.
Case Study: Saddleback Leather Company
From a small hut in Mexico to a thriving headquarters in Texas two decades later, Saddleback has grown beyond more than just bags. They sell everything from wallets to glass cases. They even launched a new brand, Love 41, but soon realized it would take more than goodwill to improve their website performance and meet growth goals.
They needed a platform with both a stable foundation and one that could be flexible, allowing them to pivot quickly. With BigCommerce, they found a powerful platform backed by a team dedicated to their success.
Their new streamlined operations they saw a 43% increase in revenue, a 40% increase in average order value (AOV) and an 18% increase in site visitors
Black Diamond.
Serving climbing and skiing communities across three continents, Black Diamond has grown into a global ecommerce powerhouse. They sell climbing, skiing, and mountain equipment to avid enthusiasts. Their commitment to the community extends to their ecommerce strategy.
Their old platform kept their world-class user-generated content and customer stories siloed and disconnected. In addition, the heavy reliance on developers meant they couldn’t tell their stories quickly enough to inspire their customers.
With BigCommerc’s headless solution, they found the flexibility they were looking for. This API-forward ecommerce framework allowed them to decouple the front-end presentation layer from the back-end server-side layer.
BigCommerce gave them an ecosystem to work globally — they were now able to house their US and EU sites under one ecommerce roof.
The Good and The Beautiful.
Case Study: The Good and The Beautiful
From stay-at-home mom to international multi-million-dollar business owner, Jenny Phillips, co-founder, started her homeschool curriculum company right out of the family basement. When COVID-19 hit, demand skyrocketed, and their ecommerce sales tripled in no time.
It quickly became clear — they needed more space to grow.
That’s when they turned to BigCommerce, a platform that could scale with their expanding business. Knowing that major brands were already using BigCommerce was a huge selling point. Plus, the shipping and fulfillment apps from the BigCommerce app store made it a breeze to meet their customers' needs.
The decision to redesign their site and go headless paid off in a big way.
The results? A stunning 72% boost in conversion rates, a 358% increase in orders, and an impressive 322% jump in revenue.
Yeti Cycles.
Yeti Cycles are pioneers in the sport of mountain biking.
As innovators in their field, they approach everything they do with the same level of rigor and enthusiasm they give to their product. They’ve attracted an enviable community of cycling enthusiasts and needed an online experience that matched the one they provided offline.
Yeti Cycles had a complicated tech stack that prevented them from moving products to market quickly. With the help of an agency partner, they discovered they could use BigCommerce’s headless commerce implementation which could match the precise engineering of their products.
Going headless proved to be the kickstart they needed for innovation and growth. It opened up an entirely new revenue stream that would have otherwise taken a massive amount of time and development resources.
They were able to launch the DTC arm of their business in a month.
How BigCommerce helps B2C companies grow
Frictionless. Full-featured. Flexible. Fast.
Those are the words customers use when describing what BigCommerce does well. Customers also enjoy dedicated support at every step.
Our tech experts understand that ecommerce solutions need to be flexible. BigCommerce gives your business a ready-to-use foundation that’s completely customizable, giving you dozens of features to fit your unique needs.
Convert more shoppers into buyers.
Minimize friction with a fast, intuitive checkout experience that pushes your customers to buy. Our one-page checkout delivers — enterprise stores using BigCommerce enjoyed a 70.8% conversion rate and a 2.67% visit-to-order conversion rate. The range of payment integrations gives ecommerce storefronts the flexibility to conduct business wherever their customers live.
Manage complexity from one backend.
There’s so much you can sync and manage with BigCommerce, that it’s hard to settle on a few features. But all our features have one thing in common – they help you scale your ecommerce operation.
You can create new storefronts and differentiated shopping experiences; connect your brick-and-mortar POS with your ecommerce storefront; track inventory across multiple channels and integrate third-party services like payments, shipping and accounting for starters.
Increase sales with omnichannel functionality.
Successful ecommerce brands are omniscient – their products appear everywhere their customers connect. You can connect multiple channels from your store and sell products seamlessly across hundreds of channels.
From pre-built integrations for Amazon, Facebook, TikTok and more to third-party providers like eBay and Mercado Libre, BigCommerce’s omnichannel management takes the guesswork out of reaching new individual customers, giving you more time to focus on strategy and growth.
Accelerate global sales.
You can design relevant local online shopping experiences at a lower cost all streamlined on a central backend. From local privacy laws to powerful new payment capabilities, you can now enjoy more personalization in 14 languages including Japan.
Boost checkout conversion with unique, localized checkout experiences for every region, allowing you to seamlessly run a multi-region, multi-storefront business.
Scale your business using AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has ushered in the next wave of digital disruption. BigCommerce is riding the wave with BigAI – our suite of AI-powered tools.
Craft compelling product descriptions optimized for search in your brand voice and tone. Convert more lookers to buyers with Searchspring’s AI-powered recommendations based on what page a person visits.
Your developers can even hang 10 with our open-source AI foundation.
The final word
As B2C ecommerce continues to grow, opportunities for forward-thinking entrepreneurs will only continue to grow.
No matter who you are — or how big your online business is — as long as you have a product, a target audience and the initiative, B2C ecommerce holds a world of potential.
FAQ about B2C ecommerce
Nicolette V. Beard
Nicolette is a Content Writer at BigCommerce where she writes engaging, informative content that empowers online retailers to reach their full potential as marketers. With a background in book editing, she seamlessly transitioned into the digital space, crafting compelling pieces for B2B SaaS-based businesses and ecommerce websites.