B2C, or business-to-consumer, refers to commerce and transactions where businesses sell products or services directly to individual consumers.
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As a new business owner, what are you selling and who is your target patron? Is your business a B2C? What does that mean? A B2C, by definition, is a “business-to-consumer” business—this means a B2C sells its products and services to consumers in the general public instead of to other businesses or the government.
The B2C definition encompasses much more than a description of who buys your wares. Let’s take a look at key characteristics of operating a B2C.
As we noted above, a B2C is a business that sells to consumers. B2Cs can come in many forms, including:
The purely B2C business owner does not sell their products and services to other businesses or government entities that will ultimately provide a product or service to the public. The B2C owner makes money by dealing with the public directly.
If you seek to sell to as many consumers as possible, your B2C can sell to other businesses and government entities as well. It’s best to speak to legal, financial, and business professionals in your industry to help you decide how many communities you want your business to reach with your services.
Doing business with consumers in the general public can have many benefits that you might want to consider.
Developing products or services for your business to sell to consumers can be a less expensive and quicker process. Many consumers in the general public don’t have to worry about meeting industry standards and regulations the way businesses and governments do, so the products you sell to them don’t have to be tailored to specific industry needs. If you don’t have to worry about your products meeting industry standards for business or government use, you don’t have to spend as much time on product development.
A big part of successfully running any business is proper marketing. To properly market your business, you need to know what your target patron wants or needs and you need an effective way to reach them.
Once again, much of the general public doesn’t have concerns about meeting industry standards and regulations, so your marketing doesn’t have to be as complex or heavily researched as for businesses and governments. Also, selling to the general public doesn’t require you to get approval from specific business and government agents before you close a deal. Through online ads, flyers, billboards, etc., you can easily reach all those who make the final decision on general consumer purchases.
B2C business is often quicker and easier, but that can mean it’s less stable and less lucrative. If you’re selling to other businesses or the government, your buyer has more money and more need to make consistent purchases of the same product than the average consumer. You’ll likely need to sell more and make sales more often to keep a steady stream of income for your B2C business.
B2C businesses focus on selling directly to the general public. It might take less effort to research and develop products and services for the general consumer, but the general consumer might have less money and less regular need for what a B2C sells.
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Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
Written by Team ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness has helped people start, run, and grow over 700,000 dream companies. The editorial team at ZenBusiness has over 20 years of collective small business publishing experience and is composed of business formation experts who are dedicated to empowering and educating entrepreneurs about owning a company.
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