The Supply Chain

The Supply Chain: B2C vs. B2B

The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences between the business-to-consumer (B2C) and the business-to-business (B2B) supply chains and compare the supply chain characteristics in each business type, B2C and B2B. In order to define the differences between the two types of supply chains, B2C and B2B, we must first define a supply chain. "A supply chain is a coordinated system of organizations, people, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service in physical or virtual manner from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities (aka value chains or life cycle processes) transform raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. Supply chains link value chains (Wikipedia, 2007)."

During the past ten years, technology has helped transform today's society into the information age. With the rapid expansion of businesses looking to use today's

technology to reach out to potential customers and businesses all across the world, business management teams are being challenged

on developing the proper supply chains.

Supply Chain

A supply chain is a set of events that occur in everyday life. In the business world a typical brick and mortar supply chain might look like this. A customer walks into a brick and mortar store to purchase a new watch. With the purchase of the watch, the supply chain begins. With the current product gone, Target will now need to receive a new watch from its distribution center. The distribution center receives the new product from the manufacturer and the manufacturer receives the raw products from several other suppliers.

B2C

Business-to-Consumer (B2C) generally targerts a consumer base based of a marketing strategy. The general purpose of a B2C company is to attact, expose, sell their goods or services to it's consumers. With the higher demand on convenience, consumers are looking for companies that will sell their goods or services online, current examples of B2C companies are Ebay, Borders, Amazon, and Target. For the purpose of examineing a B2C supply chain Target will be slected. The current company URL is www.target.com

B2B

Business-to-business (B2B) generally caters to one or more businesses, however, its products or services can vary between businesses. Most B2B companies provide sales or service to companies that are looking to increase their marketability, sales, net profits, and efficiency. Increasing any one or all of these four categories in a business will generally produce a positive return. Examples of B2B companies are Oracle, Macromedia, Intel and Microsoft. For the purpose of examining a B2B supply chain Microsoft will be selected. The current company URL is www.microsoft.com

B2C vs. B2B Supply Chain

At first glance, a B2C supply chain and B2B supply chain might seem to be the identical however, that isn't the case. One difference between a B2C and B2B supply chain is the number of channels a product must go through in order to reach the customer. In a B2B supply chain, there are fewer channels that a product must go through, however these channels are larger in size when compared to a B2C supply chain. For example: Microsoft is looking to develop a new computer program that will be copied onto compact disks. Microsoft would deal directly with a compact disk manufacturer to get their disks. The channels would simply be from Microsoft - Compact disk manufacture - raw supplies dealers. Now let's look at an individual looking to purchase