Riding on the Waves of Online Retall Business Research Paper

Riding on the Waves of Online Retall Business - Research Paper Example Now, the internet has been proven to be an effective vehicle as well to boost a growing business’ economy. Private accounts in public sites such as Multiply and other blog sites can now be considered shopping spots for some specialized products or services, and young entrepreneurs resort to these sites to begin selling their wares first to their friends, and hope that the word spreads so more traffic is geared to their online business sites. Noninska (2003) identified three basic models that represent main electronic commerce systems. One is â€Å"Business-to-Business (B2B), another is â€Å"Business-to-Consumer† (B2C) and the last is â€Å"Consumer-to-Consumer† (C2C). This paper will focus on B2C. Cyprus (2011) explains that B2C refers to the online selling of products, known as e-tailing. B2C makes it possible that any product can be virtually e-tailed. However, the challenge for online retailers and manufacturers is to attract consumers to their website marke tplace. Originally, this needed assistance with search engines, as consumers often search for products or services they need by keying in the related words on a search engine search bar. Usually, consumers choose websites on the first few pages of the results that flash up the screen. Knowing this tendency of consumers, businesses fight for a slot in the first few pages of the results of a search. One way to do it is to purchase paid listings as well as employ search engine optimization techniques such as using popular consumer keywords in their web text. The purpose of attracting traffic towards their website is to receive views from consumers and potential clients (Cyprus, 2011). Two variations of the B2C model were identified by Robert (2007). Direct sale to the customer is the first variation. An example is SmugMug.com charging their consumers for photo sharing/hosting services. The customers’ photography skills range from inexperienced shutterbugs to professional photogr aphers. This site does not offer any feature for free unlike other sites like Flickr because they are confident that their consumers are aware that they offer a great product at the right price so there is much value in availing of their service over a competitor offering services for free. Actual products and goods are mostly sold by online retailers. The second approach is the advertising model where popular sites that generate huge amounts of traffic like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, etc. come in. Free services are offered to consumers so visitors flock in who then become targets of advertising when they are logged in. Advertising can come in various forms such as â€Å"pay-per-click like Google ads to cost-per-impression to direct sale of a spot† (Robert, 2007). Just how do B2C outfits operate? Noninska (2003) compares B2C systems to real-world shopping experience. Transactions are done over an open network, so customers have unrestricted access. When a deal is closed, paym ent is made using credit cards. The B2C system verifies the validity of the card and the identity of the customer (Steinfield, n.d.). B2C sites should be user-friendly as well as offer benefits to customers such as low costs and data security. It should be able to deliver the required information within the shortest time possible so customers do not have to wait