In the era of modern commerce, warehousing and logistics fulfillment strategies vary drastically depending on who the end customer is. While some of the businesses ship directly to the customer, the others prefer to supply the products through a chain including the distributors, retailers or via other companies. This is a basic distinction between the two main warehousing and logistics fulfillment models that is the b2b order fulfillment and the b2c order fulfillment services.
As someone who wants to do a business in any of these, it is very crucial to understand the differences between both of these approaches for their business for choosing the right logistics strategy. Whether a business owner wants to rely on e-commerce fulfillment services or the wholesale operations, each model will possess its own costing measures, process and even expectations.
The most basic and the obvious difference between the b2b order fulfillment and the b2c order fulfillment is the size of each shipment. While b2b order fulfillment involves large, and bulk orders which are shipped less frequently on the other hand the b2c order fulfillment involves small, and individual orders that are shipped more often than the b2b orders. It can also be said that B2B shipments are worth significantly more per order than that of the B2C ones because that is the case many times.
Just as the order size, the target customers also define the fulfillment processes. (B2B) Wholesale fulfillment services involves transactions between big companies, on the other hand the B2C or the e-commerce fulfillment services focuses majorly on delivering the products directly to the final consumer. Due to which, the operations of B2B fulfillment often involves contracts, account managers, and long term relationships between the managers, business owners or the companies, whereas it is not the same in the case of B2C transactions as they are usually more quicker, and involve self-service purchases.
Shipping processes in both of these models also differ significantly as:
B2B typically includes heavy shipments, freight carriers, scheduled deliveries, insurances, compliance with the business owner’s requirements and more, while B2C fulfillment involves small parcel shippings, last-mile deliveries, individual packaging and faster processing times.
The packaging style and presentation of each type of fulfillment also differs significantly as:
B2B involves more functional and durable packaging for the purpose of bulk transportation, on the other hand B2C involves more branded and attractive packaging designed especially for the customer’s experience.