B2C Online Research Articles

E-guanxi: Theoretical underpinnings and scale development

China is now a world-leading e-commerce market. As a result, studies to deconstruct online relationships in China can inform marketing scholarship and practice. Hence, our primary goal is to create an improved e-tailing-centric e-guanxi scale to assess guanxi in online B2C and C2C commerce contexts. We also explore and confirm the factors contributing to and stemming from e-guanxi. Two survey-based online studies of Chinese university students were used to test a PLS-SEM model with e-guanxi as the central construct, online communication as the antecedent, and buyer satisfaction, word-of-mouth, and repurchase intention as the consequents. By informing e-guanxi-enhancing strategies, this research can provide insights into e-guanxi’s effect on Chinese e-tail markets and help identify the best e-guanxi-enhancing practices.

The Influence of COVID-19 on Online Sales in the Wine Sector: A Portuguese Case Study

COVID-19 reinforced the adoption of an online sales strategy, with e-commerce proven to be an asset in achieving positive results. Based on this premise, a case study was developed in the wine sector, to identify a strategic model for the implementation and management of a virtual store. The simultaneous presence of businesses in the largest number of distribution channels is the differentiating factor in the wine sector, as it currently has an extremely attractive market dynamics for its stakeholders. A qualitative methodological case study was developed analyzing the wine sector e-commerce in the context of a theoretical model. The conclusions highlight an increase of online sales in the wine sector in Portugal, and consequently, the importance of creating a virtual store. The growth of the B2C online sales channel indicates there is ‘divergence’ from the traditional offline B2B sales channel. There is resistance by the B2B sales model to adopt online B2C, but despite this, the wine sector favoring e-commerce has seen a boost in sales profits. Pandemic restrictions reduced consumer physical contact which is a limitation of this single case study.

Innovativeness of business models in B2C and B2B online education segments in the USA

Aim. To conduct a comprehensive analysis of the structural and functional composition of innovative business models in the B2C and B2B online education sectors, and to identify the unique elements and factors that determine the success and novelty of these models. Objectives. To identify key development trends and current trends in online education, especially in the B2C and B2B segments; to identify and compare innovative elements of business models in the pre-university and corporate segments based on the analysis of online education project websites; to assess the degree of novelty of business models using the method of frequency analysis of business model elements based on data obtained from online sources.Methods. The study is based on the industry approach to identifying unique business models, analyzing the structuring of business models according to A. Osterwalder and I. Piñe, and assessing the innovativeness of business model elements based on frequency analysis. A comparative analysis of the two segments was performed in order to understand their specific requirements and characteristics, and to identify opportunities for cross-pollination of successful practices and strategies, which can contribute to the creation of new innovative approaches in online education. Data were collected from online education project sites and aggregated using SimilarWeb tool to assess site traffic.Results. The authors found that business models in the B2B segment show a higher level of innovativeness compared to B2C. The main elements of innovativeness are personalization of learning, integration with corporate systems, and development of specialized courses. The components contributing to innovativeness are identified, and recommendations for managing the structural components of business models in each of the segments are offered.Conclusions. The study indicates the importance of innovation in online education business models and the need to adapt them to the changing needs of learners and organizations. Ways to improve business models, including the integration of new technologies and the development of customized educational products for different market segments, are suggested.

Evaluating customer orientation in e-commerce: an organization focused technology assessment*

ABSTRACT This research focuses on designing a new maturity model to evaluate and plan an organization's customer-centricity. The Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM) is used as the primary methodology to quantify impacting factors and intensity of influence on the ultimate outcome. To demonstrate the proposed model in the real world, a case study is performed in the e-commerce industry, especially B2C online retailer organizations. This research tackles the scarcity of documentation on creating maturity models that are widely accepted and sustainable, demonstrating the innovative use of the HDM methodology. In summary, the study successfully achieves its overarching objective of crafting a comprehensive model for assessing organizational maturity in the customer-centric approach, encouraging the widespread adoption of the proposed methodology across diverse sectors.This study endeavors to introduce an innovative approach for assessing an organization's customer-centricity, incorporating both product and service deliverables, specifically referred to as Product-Service Systems (PSS). The primary objective of this research is to formulate a novel maturity model, enabling organizations to 1) assess their degree of customer-centricity and 2) receive actionable recommendations aimed at enhancing customer orientation and elevating their customer-centricity maturity level..

Perceived service process in e-service delivery system: B2C online retailers performance ranking by TOPSIS

Perceived service process in e-service delivery system: B2C online retailers performance ranking by TOPSIS

Perceived service process in e-service delivery system: B2C online retailers performance ranking by TOPSIS

Perceived service process in e-service delivery system: B2C online retailers performance ranking by TOPSIS

Retracted: Research on the B2C Online Marketing Effect Based on the LS‐SVM Algorithm and Multimodel Fusion

Retracted: Research on the B2C Online Marketing Effect Based on the LS‐SVM Algorithm and Multimodel Fusion

Buyers’ Strategic Behavior in B2B Multichannel Auction Markets: When an Online Posted Price Channel Is Incorporated into a Dutch Auction System

Firms are increasingly adopting different sales channels to reach new potential buyers. Yet, extant research has mainly focused on B2C online and offline posted price channels. B2B multichannel and, especially, systems with multiple pricing mechanisms are largely underexplored. This paper investigates the strategic behaviors of B2B buyers in a unique system where an online posted price channel is incorporated into a Dutch auction market. We follow buyers’ purchasing paths and examine conditions under which B2B buyers will use one or both channels. We incorporate learning and experience and demonstrate how buyers’ behaviors evolve. Our results, using an extensive data set from the world’s largest flower market, reveal that different from B2C buyers who purchase in small quantities with fewer strategic decisions involved, B2B buyers strategically choose and combine different price mechanisms based on not only their demand but also product portfolio diversity and experiences. Moreover, different from preoccupied concerns, the integration of an online posted price channel into a Dutch auction system can bring benefits to sellers without market disruptions.

Limitations of CISG and Product Liability Act on Buyer’s Notification Obligation

Purpose - From the time when the existing international trade and international transportation were not smooth enough, the global trade market has rapidly shifted from offline to online and B2C online export has recently emerged as a new trend of export. Unlike companies that import goods in large quantities to date, for individual consumers, as a buyer, it is not easy to deal with material and personal damage due to defects in the imported goods. In CISG, although it is the most important factor in practice in defining the buyer’s obligation to notify of nonconformities, many disputes arise in the ’notification within a reasonable period’. It is not easy to detect defects within two years depending on the changing trade transaction method, and the specific period of the goods may vary. Depending on the characteristics of the goods, defects in the goods may occur after two years, and the period of two years is contrary to the purpose of protecting the buyer. Therefore, the elements of the rigid CISG need to be revised.
 Design/Methodology/Approach - This paper studies the main issues of the notification obligation of CISG and the Product Liability Act based on the legal approach. Based on the notification obligations of the CISG and the Product Liability Act, the reasonable period defined by the CISG shall be appropriately determined by adapting to specific events rather than uniform. In other words, through case comparison, it was found that CISG had a reasonable period of up to 2 years, but was given a reasonable period of at least 2 years and at least 10 years under the Product Liability Act. Therefore, the amendment is proposed to meet the purpose of protecting the buyer in the CISG’s obligation to notify.
 Findings - This paper improves the CISG clause, which is rigid and contrary to its purpose, and protects buyers who have suffered losses due to defective goods.
 Research Implications - This study is meaningful to protect buyers who lose their right to claim nonconformity from defective goods due to the application of CISG provisions that are criticized for being excessively harsh in international commodity trading, which will also be a reference for subsequent studies by other scholars.

Impact of barriers of value co-creation on consumers' innovation resistance behavior: Investigating the moderation role of the DART model

This study investigates the influence of barriers to value co-creation (VCC) on consumers' resistance behavior in the online B2C retailing context. The study also examines the moderation effect of the dimensions of the DART model, such as dialogue, accessibility, risk, and transparency. Structural equation modeling and Process macro were applied to analyze 524 responses collected through an online questionnaire. The study found inertia, perceived complexity, perceived risk, and perceived justice as crucial barriers. The dialogue, accessibility, risk assessment, and transparency were found to be crucial moderators. This study enriches the consumers' resistance behavior literature. The study findings help marketers develop strategies to enhance value co-creation and reduce the consumers' resistance behavior toward online shopping.

Meaningfully Different? How Visual Semantics Help New Ventures Achieve Optimal Distinctiveness

We examine how new ventures in online B2C marketplaces use visuals, such as product videos and images, in their strife for optimal distinctiveness, that is, being as different as conformingly possible. Building on research on cultural entrepreneurship as well as sensory marketing and perception, our work shows that visuals help new ventures orchestrate their distinct organizational identity, that is, appearing either more conforming or different to evaluating audiences than they truly are. We use machine learning approaches from image label recognition and natural language processing on videos and images of 1,157 entrepreneurial products offered on Amazon Launchpad to analyze the effect of the visual semantics—the meaning contained in visuals—on product performance. We find that visual semantics matter most for conforming new ventures' product performance, albeit with a juxtaposing effect: While visuals should adhere to consumer expectations in terms of semantic fit, that is, the type of meaning they convey, they should deviate in terms of semantic richness, that is, the extent of meaning conveyed. By offering a multifaceted perceptual perspective on the way a distinct organizational identity is visually conveyed to audiences, our work has important implications for research on optimal distinctiveness. For managers, our work demonstrates clear guidelines for designing and using semantics in product videos and images to appear more or less unique to consumer audiences in online B2C marketplaces.

Research on B2C Online Marketing Mode based on Multimodel Fusion and Intelligent Big Data Analysis Method.

B2C online marketing mode is the development trend of future marketing. The key to improve the efficiency of such a mode is to make efficient use of the current large-scale data and mining the corresponding potential value. To control the cost of B2C online marketing mode, this paper analyzes the UJRP model and proposes a hybrid bat difference algorithm (BADE). Experimental results are verified the effectiveness of the proposed method in diversity and cost control. Furthermore, we utilize multimodel fusion strategy (linear weighted fusion) to achieve better performances in B2C online marketing on cost than BADE method. Finally, in the random and diverse online marketing environment, such an improved method can provide the decision-makers of B2C online marketing mode with more flexible choices.

User Experience Evaluation of B2C E-Commerce Websites Based on Fuzzy Information

With the popularization of personal computers and the development of the Internet, the number of netizens is increasing. The emerging B2C e-commerce platform shows the fierce competition in the e-commerce market. B2C e-commerce distribution is faced with the problems of high distribution cost, long time, and poor quality, which leads to the poor user experience of B2C online shopping and the lack of trust in e-commerce enterprises. This research mainly discusses the user experience evaluation of B2C e-commerce websites based on fuzzy information. First, the AHP analytic hierarchy process is used to construct a hierarchical evaluation system, and then, the two-by-two judgment matrix is compared to the index factors at all levels, and experts are invited to score the method to determine the weight of each index to test whether it meets the consistency requirements. Finally, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to perform fuzzy conversion of the original weight, and the membership degree set of the user experience evaluation factors is given, and the fuzzy comprehensive calculation result of the B2C website performance level is calculated. By combining in-depth interviews with website users and questionnaire surveys to analyze the behavioral characteristics of user information navigation, summarize the demand list for product search, product selection, product comparison, and product detail page browsing, and provide a reference for the design and development of information navigation. Calculating the decision model, mainly using fuzzy calculation, calculate the foreground value under each attribute and get the comprehensive foreground value. By comparing with the decision-making behavior model constructed by expected utility theory, it is found that the behavioral decision-making model constructed in this paper based on prospect theory can be closer to the actual situation. In this study, the satisfaction with the function provided reached 68 points, the emotional response 66 points, the aesthetic response 70 points, and the information construction 64 points. Through empirical research, the key factors affecting user satisfaction of B2C e-commerce logistics distribution are summarized, and a B2C e-commerce logistics distribution evaluation system based on user experience is established. This research will provide methods and ideas for the research on user experience design of e-commerce websites and the research and development of related network products. The article helps to draw out the countermeasures and suggestions for the development of the current B2C e-commerce logistics distribution.

Categorically right? How firm-level distinctiveness affects performance across product categories

In their pursuit of “optimal distinctiveness,” firms need to simultaneously adhere to norms and stand out from the competition. Using longitudinal data from Amazon Launchpad, an online B2C marketplace for entrepreneurial products, we offer a multi-level perspective on optimal distinctiveness from a consumer goods market in which firms are active across different and heterogeneous product categories. Arguing along categorization, organizational identity, and the fit with audiences' theory of value, we challenge the assumption that firm-level distinctiveness, i.e., the distinctiveness of a firm's organizational identity and category claims, delivers equal benefits to all products it offers and showcase the decisive role of product category context. In product categories that share less overlap with other categories and thus occupy a more distinct position in the classification system, products offered by firms with high firm-level distinctiveness benefit, whereas in product categories that share frequent relations to other categories and thus occupy a non-distinct position, products do not benefit at all. This offers researchers and managers alike a new and more nuanced perspective on firm-level distinctiveness: It is not invariably efficient in addressing audiences once the “optimal” level is found, but requires careful consideration of both the firm-level appeal and the product category in which a firm seeks to operate. Firm-level distinctiveness provides firms with the means to increase the differentiation of their own products, yet this effect is most meaningful in product categories with an increasingly distinct position.

A comparative analysis for emerging e-commerce business owners: Shopify & Amazon

The article examines the topic of Shopify and Amazon as COVID-19 and the emergence of new technologies ushers in a new era of online retail, B2B and B2C content. As a result, supply chain management has had to catch up. I believe that this is an important topic because our reliance on technology will continue to develop and COVID-19 has shown us that many solutions can be solved through technology. I want to address what this means, what the future holds in e-commerce, and what business owners should look out for when entering into the online space. For this essay, I interviewed four sources. The first is the co-founder of Commence, an online women’s apparel store with monthly profits of $3 million USD. Secondly, I interviewed the co-founder of Douhu, a shipping agent for both Amazon and Shopify with over 20 years of experience. I interviewed the Senior Regional B2B Director of Yuntu, which is one of the largest E-commerce cross-border logistic service providers in the world. Lastly, I spoke to Fiona Lin who has worked as a logistics specialist for companies under Shopify and Amazon.

Delay Prediction to Mitigate E-commerce Supplier Disruptions using Voting Mechanism

COVID-19 has severely affected supply chains and last-mile logistics. With a remarkable expansion in the internet-based deals of B2C online business and changed customer behaviors, it is critical to estimate delays with sufficient precision to avoid time-related uncertainty. The risk of a supplier's delivery being late will harm businesses' ability to fulfill client orders. Shipment information of an online business organization is utilized for the investigation. The dataset is pre-processed and important features are extracted using the Random Forest technique. We propose an enhanced hybrid voting-based classification model with Trees, and Ensemble techniques (like bagging and boosting) enabled by parameters like shipping mode, scheduled shipment time, and order type to anticipate the postponement with the highest accuracy. Since the base classifiers in the voting mechanism cannot perform at the same level, we assigned various weights and noticed a significant improvement in classification performance. Consistently, the proposed model depicts improved performance and provides strategic, operational, and industrial insights for decision-making in last-mile businesses.

B2C online ride-hailing pricing and service optimization under competitions

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>B2C online ride-hailing is to provide customers with anytime, anywhere and on-call ride services by professional vehicles and professional drivers. How to maintain good service quality and reasonable pricing under competition is of importance to a platform. In this paper, we will integrate pricing and service together to maximize the profit of a platform through Nash game theory. Specifically, we will establish the models for there scenarios: the demand market competition under decline of ride demand, the supply market competition under surge of ride demand, and the coexistence of demand and supply market competition for stable ride demand. Then, the Nash equilibriums are derived for the three models which are corresponding to minimize ride price, optimize quality of efforts and maximize profit. Our results uncover that the driver's incentive amount is conducive to the profit of both platform and the drivers for the case of demand market competition. The platforms and drivers achieve the highest profit under supply market competition, and the strategy through minimizing price and maximizing service can effectively adjust the balance between market supply and demand.</p>

A Study of the Yield of Honey in Farms from North-Eastern Bulgaria

The aim is to study the prices, cost and profitability of honey from the Ruse region. A serious problem has been defined for honey, which is a major product of regional beekeeping, respectively its profitability - steadily declining prices do not cover the rising costs of production and sale. The study found that the average prices of the online segment of organic honey compared to the same offline segment in packages of 1 kg have a difference of almost 2 times, and in the smallest cuts 3 times. The gross profit (margin) of the regional honey of the B2B offline markets in the biological and conventional segment for 2020 is negative. The study found that own B2C online channels in the conventional segment achieve a net return of 48 BGN/year per beehive, and in the biological segment - 97.92 BGN/year per beehive. The latter provides 150 beehives with a net income of 1224 BGN/month, which is the yield on the sale of organic honey on the offline B2C markets with 950 beehives. Marketing strategies of beekeeping farms in the Ruse region are needed to achieve competitiveness and profitability at the sectoral and regional level.

Investigation to determine elements influencing customer's satisfaction in the B2C electronic retailing marketplaces

PurposeTaking the perfect perspective of customers' satisfaction, this paper aims to investigate the elements affecting customer satisfaction in business-to-consumer (B2C) online retailing stores, which are divided into five non-monetary dimensions: trust, order fulfillment, website construction, excitement and interaction.Design/methodology/approachDue to distinguishing the suitability of the data, the authors used exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Next, the authors utilized confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to check their validity. Then, the authors applied Cronbach's alpha to check the reliability of the elements. After that, the authors combined these five elements with structural equation modeling (SEM) to make a model. The authors also performed Friedman tests to prioritize the elements.FindingsThe results indicate that each element is undeniably significant and has an extraordinary impact on customers' satisfaction evaluation. Therefore, system providers and electronic retailers need to consider them on their websites to achieve marketing goals in the competitive online environments.Originality/valueElectronic commerce has resulted in an essential change in B2C marketing, especially in the electronic retailing industry. Online suppliers need to satisfy their customers to receive competitive advantages and increase their income. The purpose of this study is to research the elements affecting customers' satisfaction in B2C online retailing stores.

Logistics Service Quality in Online Shopping: A Bibliometric Analysis

This paper outlines the main areas and latest developments of logistics service quality (LSQ) in the context of business to consumer (B2C) online shopping and proposes future research directions. More specifically, this paper has three objectives: What is the status of research of LSQ in B2C e-tailing? Which themes involving the field are the most popular among scholars? What are the possibilities for future research? This study examined a sample of 177 papers from the Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases to find research activity on LSQ in B2C online shopping between 2001 and early 2021 using bibliometric analysis. The methodology involves selecting, analyzing, and classifying 177 papers into authors, journals, time, focus areas, keywords, country, citation, co-citation, and thematic distribution analysis. Four major themes have emerged, LSQ for integrating traditional retail with omnichannel retail; LSQ and inventory management; LSQ and supply chain collaboration and LSQ transformation to E-LSQ. It gives researchers and scholars information to help them work on new developments of LSQ in B2C e-tailing and create strategies, models, and structures for increasing firm performance and customer satisfaction.