A Complete Guide on Moving Your B2B Business to D2C!
The eCommerce industry business models are changing expeditiously. Recently the trend that is reforming the eCommerce industry is a switch from traditional business models such as B2B(Business-to-Business) and B2C(Business-to-Consumer) to more customer-centric models such as D2C(Direct-to-Consumer) or B2B2C(Business-to-Business-to-Consumer).
As there are many business models present in the industry, sellers and brands need to enthusiastically decide upon which model will best suit their business in terms of expansion and fulfill the customer demands.
If you want to create your brand image and sell your products directly to customers, you should go for the Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) business model. It can help you to scale up your business in the right direction. The latest research shows that by 2023 approximately 67.5% of B2B businesses may shift their business to the Direct-to-Consumer model. In this blog, let’s find out what D2C and B2B models are and why one should shift their business to Direct-to-Consumer from Business-to-Business models.
Description of Direct-to-Consumer Business Model
The Direct-to-Consumer eCommerce business model is trending all across the globe. In this specific business model, brands manufacture their products and sell them directly to their targeted customers without the involvement of third parties such as wholesalers, retailers, and distributors. D2C brands handle everything on their own in producing products, marketing, order processing, and shipping. According to recent research, more than 47% percent of consumers prefer to shop directly from the manufacturer brands instead of retailers or other sellers. This model works on establishing a direct relationship with your customers. That’s why most businesses are shifting towards the D2C model.
Description of Business-to-Business Model
The Business-to-Business (B2B) model is where manufacturers sell their products to other businesses. The B2B brands or sellers primarily sell their products in bulk to the other businesses. In this business model, the exchange of products occurs between two or more businesses. Amazon, Myntra, Ajio and Flipkart are examples of B2B eCommerce websites that sellers use to sell their products. In this model, consumers get involved at a later stage. This is a complete chain between manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers.
Why You Should Shift Your B2B Business to D2C
The main focus area of any business is generating revenue and making more of it. Besides this, being on the top of the list and accelerating the sales opportunities are the second priority. However, the Direct-to-Consumer business model’s selling approach can help your business achieve this goal. Direct-to-consumer brands are taking over the market on a larger scale in India and worldwide. Nowadays, numerous D2C brands in the industry have marked their presence spontaneously. Let’s find out those specific reasons why you should shift your B2B business to D2C.
Escalate Revenue
This business model allows you to deal directly with your customers and offer them fair-priced products. In this model, you can save the costs on shipping, packaging, and the retailer’s commission. As a D2C brand, you can attract more customers based on authenticity and honest pricing. Ultimately it can help you in increasing your revenue and profit margins.
Brand Visibility
As a Direct-to-Consumer brand, you can own a dedicated website or an app to sell your products. Customers can visit your website to buy their preferred products. You can promote your brand individually through several effective mediums. You can run the campaigns to promote your product, and all these factors can help you increase your brand visibility. Customers will know more about your product if you have a D2C business model.
Increased Customer Engagement
In the B2B business model, manufacturers and sellers can’t get enough engagement with customers. However, the Direct-to-Consumer business model provides you that privilege where you can get connected to your customers and keep them hooked with your eCommerce business. Here you can better understand the needs of your consumer and offer them personalized products as well. Even customers can directly contact you for any queries related to the products. In this way, it helps in increasing customer engagement. To run your D2C business smoothly, you can integrate your system with eCommerce seller software such as eVanik. It can help you with payment, shipping, accounting, and more.
Direct Access to Consumers’ Data
In B2B business models, you can not have the leverage of directly accessing the consumer’s data. However, in the D2C business model, you can better understand your consumers’ behavior, their preferences, and how they interact with your products. It allows you to build more customized offerings, optimize the existing products and scale up your marketing strategies. The direct connection with your customers allows you to have real insight or access to the consumer’s data.
Expanding Business Operations
As a brand, you can quickly expand your eCommerce business operations with the help of the Direct-to-consumer business model. You can leverage the latest technologies to gather customer insights and revise marketing strategies. This approach can help you improve the customer experience and invest in the innovation of products. In this way, you can enlarge your online business to the next level.
Fastest Growing D2C Brands of India
Mamaearth
It is a well-known beauty brand in India that received massive customer engagement and loyalty. Apart from its website, it has appeared on all the prominent eCommerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Nykaa. The brand is undoubtedly in colossal profit today.
Boat
It is one of India’s most popular and distinguished electronic brands that sell earphones and smart watches at a reasonable price. This D2C brand is selling its products on every top-notch eCommerce platform. According to company stats, it sells more than eight thousand products every day and has approximately 18 million consumers in India.
Sugar Cosmetics
Sugar cosmetics is one of India’s top-selling beauty and makeup brands. Its targeted consumers are women between the age of 20 to 40. Its products are available everywhere in both online and offline markets.
Licious
This D2C brand has changed the way people used to buy meat products. It provides the customers the luxury of ordering raw meat, fish, and chicken online. Believe it or not, Licious has more than 3.5k employees, and its customer base is over one million.
Pepperfry
This is a renowned Indian furniture D2C brand that offers fashionable housing and dining furniture and kitchen and washroom equipment. This brand has over 3.6 million active consumers and more than 4 million visitors monthly. Pepperfry has over 20 studios across India, mostly in metro cities.
Conclusion
Moving from B2B business to a Direct-to-consumer model is not that simple but is a requirement if you wish to survive in the competitive eCommerce market. It allows you to directly interact with your customers, which is a great thing, and you can not have that liberty while dealing in a Business-to-business model. So, to make more revenue and create a brand image, you may think of going with the Direct-to-Consumer business model.
