B2C Websites

Usually, the main objective for a B2C (Business to Consumer) website is to generate orders with the minimum amount of communication with the end customer. In this sense, it differs significantly from B2B websites, where the objective is generally to make initial contact, convert it into a lead, and then cultivate that lead to convert it into a paying customer.

As a result, B2C websites are much more direct and functional, and too much communication with the customer is usually a bad sign.

• If the customer needs to communicate with you to complete the buying process or to ask questions about a product, then you need to improve your B2C website and make the website do the work.
• If the customer is communicating with you regarding problems with the order, refunds, etc., you may need to improve the quality of your products or their descriptions.
• If your B2C website answers all the customer's questions and doubts, there should be no need to ever communicate directly with the customer.

A common misconception about B2C websites is that the product's price makes all the difference. However, the price, while important, is not everything. The most important factor is to APPEAR high up in Google when the user searches for that item. If you don't appear, your pricing is of no interest to anybody. That is where SEO comes in; that is what we do; that is what our platform EC Engine is optimized for. We get you the positioning, the organic traffic, and the sales. Once you are getting steady SEO traffic, you can start to focus on other areas, such as price, in order to improve your conversions of visits into sales.

What is B2C SEO Traffic?

When defining your SEO Strategy, you must focus on B2C SEO Traffic. As we have discussed elsewhere on the web (What SEO Strategy should I choose?), you know you are using B2C Keywords / Key Phrases when you see Amazon and Shopify on your Search Engine Results Page (SERP). If you see Alibaba, Wikipedia, etc., then you may need to fine-tune your SEO Strategy. EC Center will help you define the SEO Strategy best suited for your web.

Analyzing your current SEO traffic will help us decide the key money phrases on your web and the potential money phrases. The goal will be to increase this B2C SEO traffic over time continually.

Which B2C Website do I need?

EC Center offers three types of B2C Websites. All three types use the same EC Engine platform, and all have access to the following Standard B2C Website modules:

• Shopping Cart
• Digital Downloads
• Request for Quote 
• "Made to Order" Functionality
• Product Options and Configuration
• Online Payment Systems
• Order Management System (Order Status, Order Management, Customer Communication, Returns, Stock Management)
• ...in addition to many other "standard" B2C functions (Client Management, Shipping Management, invoice generation, label generation, abandoned carts, etc.)

The standard B2C Website should be suitable for most projects. But, the more complex your requirements, the more modifications or customizations we may have to make to the Design and your EC Engine configuration. This requirement for modifications or customizations will dictate which type of B2C Website you will need.

For example, in a Modified B2C Website, we often have to

• Integrate a specific payment system into the EC Engine
• Integrate with a specific Backoffice Stock Control System 
• Add Dropship functionality with communication with suppliers

In a Custom B2C Website, we will do whatever the customer needs. Examples are

• Complete Backoffice integration with Dropshipper 
• Automatic online web updates (Content and images) from Supplier's Back Office
• Partial Payments
• Order Splitting
• ...whatever YOU need

These are ALL functionalities that were added to EC Engine based on our B2C customer's requests. EC Engine has evolved in this way, based on real requirements, from real B2C customers.

What does the EC Center do for you? 

We aim to AUTOMATE the purchasing experience as much as possible over time. As we identify areas of improvement, we modify the EC Engine to automate those processes. We are always monitoring your web and its performance. We are always looking to see where we can improve. B2C websites require a lot more attention than B2B websites. When there is a problem in B2C, the orders will stop, and there has to be an IMMEDIATE SOLUTION. This is what we are good at.

EC Center has been doing B2C Websites and B2C SEO for over 20 years! We know how to maintain, grow, and fix B2C Websites.

The components of the EC Center B2C Service Package are as follows:

The best aspect of a B2C web is that results don't lie. The more orders a web has, the more successful it is, and the results are clear for suppliers and customers alike. In B2B webs, it is often more difficult to judge success as not all contacts will be valid leads, and not all leads will convert to paying customers. B2C is clear and simple in this respect.

Remember, EC Engine is OUR platform. We can do anything we want with it. So whatever YOU need, WE can do.