B2C e-commerce is not as simple as just setting up an online store.

B2C E-commerce is not as simple as just opening an online store.

Is your company "e-commerce enabled"? In 2006, the development of B2C and C2C in China was rapid. Let's not even talk about the old pure online e-commerce platforms like Dangdang, Joyo, Taobao, and EachNet; the wave of traditional enterprises entering the e-commerce field was also surging. Gome Online Mall, Carrefour Online Mall, Xidan Online Mall, Bailian E-City, Pop Coast Online Mall—many big names from traditional industries have opened another store, and the suffix for the new store name is uniformly called "online mall." In 2006, in the EB sector, especially in B2C e-commerce, it was bustling.

Here I will list a few more data points for you to consider.

According to official information released by Walmart, as of now, Walmart has opened 77 stores in China and 6800 globally, with a total sales revenue in China in 2006 amounting to RMB 9.93 billion. Walmart's global income in 2006 was approximately RMB 2.7105 trillion.

Taobao's total transaction volume in 2006 was RMB 16.9 billion. It should be emphasized that RMB 16.9 billion is the transaction volume on the platform.

Taobao is truly a C2C platform. To give an analogy, the merchants on Taobao are unlicensed individual traders who purchase products in a scattered way from upstream manufacturers or wholesalers and then retail them to earn a margin. Moreover, there are basically no brands, no after-sales service, and no other value-added services. Therefore, looking at Taobao as a farmers' market, providing free stall space for unlicensed Taobao sellers, achieving a transaction volume of RMB 16.9 billion, is indeed remarkable. Unlicensed trading equals "C," making C2C truly what it claims to be.

Now Taobao is loudly announcing its entry into B2C and claiming it will start charging. Hopefully, this shift in model isn't just about allowing large merchants to set up bigger stalls.

B2C shouldn't just be about setting up stalls online.

The data from the 2006 China Online Shopping Research Report by iResearch Market Consulting Company indicates: by the end of 2006, the total transaction volumes for B2C and C2C were RMB 8.2 billion and RMB 23 billion respectively. The total number of users in China's online shopping market reached 43.1 million people. The trend is clear. With the resolution of issues such as payment and logistics, the scale of online shopping continues to grow, and personal user habits for online shopping are gradually forming. At this point, how much hope can we still place on the C2C and B2C models that merely set up stalls online?

Many people, even enterprise management teams, believe that building a website, uploading product pictures, tagging prices, and signing agreements with third-party payment platforms means they've achieved e-commerce? Or even simpler, just posting pictures on Taobao? Reality is far from what many people think. E-commerce is not as simple as just opening an online store, let alone setting up a stall on Taobao. As a provider of enterprise-level B2C e-commerce solutions, Boshang Software Technology Co., Ltd., its general manager Zhang Zhongming uses Walmart's online mall as an example to say:

True B2C is not just about setting up stalls online. In this aspect, Walmart’s years of exploration provide us with a great role model.

Currently, Walmart's online shopping websites have three sites globally: Mexico, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Through research on Walmart, it can be found that what leaves the deepest impression on people is Walmart's entire set of advanced and efficient logistics and supply chain management systems. Walmart's distribution centers, chain stores, warehouses, and goods transport vehicles around the world, as well as its partners (such as suppliers), are all centrally and effectively managed and optimized by this system, forming a flexible, efficient product production, distribution, and sales network. For this reason, Walmart has even spent heavily to purchase several satellites to ensure the information transmission of this network.

With supply chain management in place, large-scale procurement and efficient supply chain management enable Walmart to obtain highly discounted, more assured products; integrated scheduling and management of distribution centers, chain stores, and warehouse networks achieve efficient, low-cost logistics and delivery services; brand credibility; comprehensive product categories. More importantly, through the online system, Walmart has a dynamic customer database. Through this database, Walmart can understand customers' shopping preferences, purchasing habits, and other valuable customer information, forming an efficiently operating, organically growing customer database management mechanism. When every consumer's desires are fully understood by businesses, what reason is there not to serve customers well? What reason is there not to dig deep into customers' pockets? The experience accumulated by Walmart's online mall is worth learning from by companies worldwide that are about to enter the e-commerce field.

B2C should not just be about setting up stalls online. B2C is not simply about putting offline products online for sale and considering the task complete. True B2C development should not just involve changes in sales behavior but also adjustments in marketing strategy layout. I believe that in the future, the sales channels represented by e-commerce will bring changes not only in the proportion of sales but also in the establishment of customer database marketing systems to achieve perfect direct-response marketing models, which will have a revolutionary impact on the competitive landscape of traditional industries.

Whether conceptually or technologically, enterprise-level e-commerce solutions that integrate traditional marketing concepts and technology form the foundation of a company's "E" transformation. Online malls and physical malls both require careful management by their operators. E-commerce is not as simple as just setting up stalls. The marketing concepts integrated into Boshang's B2C e-commerce solutions will provide benchmarks for latecomers in the technical domain.

Only by changing the mindset of just setting up stalls can China's B2C move onto the right path and mature. Let e-commerce become the core competitiveness of your enterprise, hoping this statement spreads wider from Boshang Software and becomes reality. (Source: ProBIZ Boshang E-commerce Research probiz.com)