The journey begins: eBusiness for B2C (business-to-consumer)

In my main career I mainly focus on business analysis, business process modeling/re-engineering as well as planning/managing projects in those areas. These projects are invariably for medium to large companies who are embarking on or refining their B2B (business-to-business) operations.

I am often asked by people operating small businesses or those who would like to get into the space either as a side business or a mainstream career, if I can validate claims being made about the entire industry that supports the B2C (business-to-consumer) models. This is an area that boomed since the late 90's and there were stories of huge riches made by a few people. I, however, chose not to enter that area because I did not have the time or motivation to do so.

There is anecdotal evidence that people continue to make huge profits supporting the B2C industry. These claims usually are made on marketing sites, late night TV infomercials and targeted emails some of which are just SPAM.

If you have a niche product or service that is in demand, then having an online presence either in the form of a web site or selling through a large commercial portal (for e.g., Amazon, Google, Yahoo, etc) will certainly offer an alternative channel for your business/product/service. It should however be remembered that these techniques will only be channels to make a sale. Closing the sale will ultimately be what makes a business successful.

In order to garner a wider audience and drive more customers to the web site, B2C operations buy into many different programs available in the hopes of creating a successful online channel for their business. Affiliate marketing appears to be the area that has been touted as the secret that makes a successful online B2C business. A quick read of blogs and marketing web sites offer proof of how the B2C support areas have contributed to the success of online businesses. Most of the claims made and numbers provided are available on the sites that are selling those programs. Some of these programs are free and others charge a fee. I could not find independent evidence supporting the claims. I do, however, continue to get questions and requests for validation of the claims from friends, colleagues and people interested in jumping into the field.

Every year I conduct one research project that is very different from what I do in my regular work. This is not only for personal growth but also to have one extra tool in my box for future projects.

Although it is late in the 2009, I have decided to allocate a little time to studying and experimenting with B2C and the areas that support it. Since it will be done on a part-time basis, it will probably run for several months and well into next year.

While I do not have any products to launch an eCommerce web site, I will study the affiliate marketing programs that help to drive customers to B2C web sites and help close the sales. I will approach this study using the steps of the scientific method: problem statement, research, hypothesis, test/experiment, analyze results, draw conclusions and finally communicate the results,

I will use my existing website and other online resources to conduct the experiment. I will use this blog to document each step I take in the scientific process. I will present charts, graphs and results as and when I generate them.

So stay tuned and follow along as I make this journey which will no doubt help me to learn something new. Ultimately I will be able to provide intelligent and knowledgeable answers to requests for information in this area.

So my first step will be to create a problem statement which I will document in my next blog article.

Until next time.