Comparison Of B2C E-Commerce Services: Outsource2india Vs. Darkwave

The B2C Business Model

For this assignment, I will choose the business to consumer B2C model. The B2C business model refer to an internet and electronic commerce or e-commerce model that entails online sale or electronic transaction between a business and consumer (Turban, Outland, King, Liang, and Turban, 2017, pp. 17). The model involves a product or service exchange from a particular business to consumer where consumers buy products or services from merchants. As such, a business that sells online merchandise is categorized under B2C model. The B2C activities play a critical role in shaping the internet (Kim, H.B., Kim, T.T., and Shin, 2009, pp.266-277; Crespo, and Del Bosque, 2008, pp.2830-2847). There was an electronic serge of B2C model late 19^th century which helped the catapult e-commerce activities. Many organizations took advantage of this and migrated to electronic store after realizing that they could a significant amount of merchandise with the help of B2C business model (Hoejmose, Brammer, and Millington, 2012, pp.609-620).  

The B2C business model is highly valued in Australia today, owing to the increase in internet penetration, inclined global per capita, the rising disposable income, an increase in the use of a smartphone (Leminen, Westerlund, Rajahonka, and Siuruainen, 2012, pp. 15-26). The ever-increasing acceptance in technology has made e-commerce business segment to be more reachable and efficient (Chiu, Wang, Fang, and Huang, 2014, pp.85-114). Also, the increasing population of the middle class and the increased use of social media aggravates the demand for online purchase of goods and services.

The Internet has changed the way people buy and sell goods and services, the e-commerce is also changing the shopping experience for consumers (Laudon, and Traver, 2013, pp. 246-345; Zikmund, D’Alessandro, Winzar, Lowe, and Babin, 2017, pp. 32-37). A safe and secure online platform has been enabled by banks and other users of e-commerce market and they are further focusing on more changes in the B2C business model to enable an online transaction for their buyers and sellers (Bucherer, and Uckelmann, 2011, pp. 253-277). The big retailers in the market, on the other hand, are trying to tie up with the big e-commerce players by complementing their traditional retailing with e-commerce (Ayers, and Odegaard, 2017, pp. 14; Sigala, 2017, pp.346-355).

Due to the competition, this filed has a vast presence of mergers as well as purchases (Ross, 2016, pp. 56-98; Hong, and Cho, 2011, pp.469-479). Some key players in the field are Amazon, PayPal, Flipkart and Alibaba among others. Along with the big players mentioned, various home-ground players have also shown a tremendous growth and have been attracting an enormous number of investors (Turban et al., 2017, pp. 17). A few home-ground investors that are yet to be analyzed in this article are Outsource2india (https://www.outsource2india.com/) and Darkwave Consulting (https://www.darkwave.com.au/) both of which have their central location in Australia. The primary purpose of this article is therefor to compare and contrast the two chosen e-commerce services namely outsource2india.com and Darkwave.com in the B2C model.

Competition in the B2C Market

Figure 1: Outsorce2india home page diagram (https://www.outsource2india.com/).

The outsource2india e-commerce platform is one of the most popular B2C business model for sourcing goods from various countries (Outsource2india, 2018). Its website is straightforward noticeable and easy to use thus making it easy for its customers to navigate through the website. It has well incorporated SEO features, it also has strong performance, and reliability features. The site also has a full-fledged store without any add-on and plugins.

Figure 2: Darkwave home page diagram (https://www.darkwave.com.au/).

The Darkwave, however, is an e-commerce platform based in Australia. It is similar to the outsource2india in that both websites are easy to use, also they have no add-on (Darkwave consultation, 2018). The Darkwave.com, however fall behind outsource2india when it comes to theme as well as integration.

1. For each chosen website; in 1-2 paragraphs, explain why the website belongs to that particular e-commerce business model.
2. Why the website (https://www.outsource2india.com/) belongs to the Outsource2india

Outsource2india belongs to B2C business model. The website has an easily understood navigation system. This helps its shoppers to find the products and services as fast as possible without hustle. Also, when navigating through the menu bar of the organization’s website, you will find a list of products and services offered by the organization. Another reason why this website is for e-commerce business is that besides customer login section, it has security features that ensures sensitive data such as customer’s card numbers are secured.   

1. Why the website (https://www.darkwave.com.au/) belongs to B2C business model

The Darkwave consultancy organization website is an e-commerce based website. Just like outsource2india website, the Darkwave consultancy organization’s website also have a list of B2C services listed in its menu bar. Some of the services offered by the organization include general income tax compliance, project management among others. Also, the website has few contents making it to load quickly for its users as research has it that many online users abandon websites that does not load quickly.

1. For each chosen website; in 1-2 paragraphs, identify what you think is/are the principal business goal(s) of the website.
2. The principal business goals of Outsorce2india website

Websites is a critical aspect of any e-commerce retailing, it offers a platform where the organization transact online and reach out to maximum customers through their online presence. Outsorce2india website has various principal goals that can be seen from its unique design features including the animating air balloons, menu bar layout, and many other features. Most likely the goal of the outsorce2india is to compel its visitors to browse through the site and offer a chance to impress its consumers (Hong, and Cho, 2011, pp.469-479). From the stance of the competition in the e-commerce niche, it is essential that outsorce2india stand out different from its completion rivals. As the e-commerce market is filled with various alternatives, there should be a good reason why a consumer must just select the companies over adversaries.

Outsource2india: B2C E-Commerce Platform

Enhancing user-friendliness also seems to be another goal of the website; outsorce2india website is easy to navigate. The easy process of searching contents enables users to reach different pages of products and services they want to buy. The outsorce2india website also provides its users with ample details as well as animations that are related to the services they offer so that its customers can understand the products and services provided by the organization without seeing or touching them real. As these features seem realistic, the chances of getting a conversation from its customers will obviously increase.

The Darkwave website has few contents in its homepage. Owing to this fact, it can be seen that the minimalistic layout is the principal goal of the design. Minimalism in web design refers to the best way of emphasizing or simplicity and remove the redundant contents from the website (Riley-Huff, 2012, pp.29-35). However, getting the minimalism features right can be a bit fiddly. Notwithstanding, the website has clearly done it by the careful selection of the color palette, attractive topography, and the right design elements. The good thing about this website is that it is easy to develop and its responsiveness is also increased as its contents load easily thus the ultimate goal of the site.

For each website; consider the following attributes and assess them on the following five-point semantic differential scale.

In this section of the report, we will compare and contrast the two mentioned websites. Both sites are similar in terms of their purpose as they are all e-commerce websites (Outsource2india, 2018). However, they are different in terms of features and structure. Outsource2india.com is a popular website of an organization offering a range of services including outsourcing goods and services to various countries, research and analysis, software  development, data services, creative design, engineering services, finance and accounting services, data entry services, photo editing, healthcare BPO transcription and mortgage services (Outsource2india, 2018).

The darkwave.com.au, on the other hand, is for the Darkwave consultancy organization, it offers financial accounting and reporting services, management accounting and bookkeeping, business tax compliance and strategy, superannuation and investment management, project management, and income tax compliance (Darkwave consultation, 2018). 

On opening the Outsource2india.com homepage, the first thing a user get confronted with is animating air balloons. This animation consumes almost a one-third of the page. The purpose of this is to draw the users to the site. The use of animations signifies the outsourcing theme, something that the user tends to have searched for in google search engine. The page is compact with almost no free space with the graphics taking part of the majority of the page. Nevertheless, the page is designed with ease for its users in mind. The contents can be read easily since the texts are large and bold enough to be read with ease; black texts are written in the light background with dark texts written in dark background (Carmona et al., 2012, pp.11243-11249). The graphics of the page are also used as modes of navigation for the user to navigate the website. Additionally, the navigation bar is neatly placed horizontally at the top section of the page. According to Nielsen and Pernice (2010), when graphics are purposefully used to illustrate content, a website homepage can be greatly enhanced.

Darkwave: B2C E-Commerce Platform

In comparison, the darkwave.com.au is a quite less creative paradigm. There is no technical aspect in the page as in outsource2india.com, the page is simplistic with white spaces taking a better part of the page. However, the white spaces in the page are important since they can guide the user’s eye and help him to understand the grouping of information as further cited by Nielsen, and Pernice, (2010). The texts are very few on the page making the website simple and easy to understand. The page is elegantly designed with dark green background wave picture, the white texts are placed in the dark background with the black texts placed in the light background. Background images of cities appear as user scroll down the page to draw the user’s attention to the information. Navigation is tidily integrated in the website in a button at the top right section so that when a user clicks on the button, a drop-down menu appear for navigation.

However, the home page of both websites is consistent with the stereotypical convention of the structure and contents of the homepage. They are both designed with easy navigation for the user in mind and their contents are purposefully and can be recognized from the onset. In both websites, the primary goal of homepage is to respond to the questions, where am I? And what does this site do? As cited in (Lee, and Kozar, 2012, pp.450-463; Bucherer, and Uckelmann, 2011, pp. 253-277).

Reference list

Ayers, J.B. and Odegaard, M.A., 2017, Retail supply chain management, CRC Press, pp. 14.

Bucherer, E., and Uckelmann, D., 2011, Business models for the internet of things, In Architecting the internet of things, pp. 253-277, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Carmona, C.J., Ramírez-Gallego, S., Torres, F., Bernal, E., Del Jesús, M.J., and García, S., 2012, Web usage mining to improve the design of an e-commerce website: OrOliveSur.com, Expert Systems with Applications, 39(12), pp.11243-11249.

Chiu, C.M., Wang, E.T., Fang, Y.H. and Huang, H.Y., 2014, Understanding customers’ repeat purchase intentions in B2C e?commerce: the roles of utilitarian value, hedonic value and perceived risk, Information Systems Journal, 24(1), pp.85-114.

Crespo, Á.H., and Del Bosque, I.R., 2008, The effect of innovativeness on the adoption of B2C e-commerce: A model based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(6), pp.2830-2847.

Darkwave consultation, 2018, Darkwave consultation e-commerce service, Accessed on 7^th September 2018 from: < https://www.darkwave.com.au/>

Hong, I.B., and Cho, H., 2011, The impact of consumer trust on attitudinal loyalty and purchase intentions in B2C e-marketplaces: Intermediary trust vs. seller trust. International Journal of Information Management, 31(5), pp.469-479.

Laudon, K.C., and Traver, C.G., 2013, E-commerce. Pearson, pp. 246-345.

Lee, Y. and Kozar, K.A., 2012. Understanding of website usability: Specifying and measuring constructs and their relationships. Decision support systems, 52(2), pp.450-463.

Leminen, S., Westerlund, M., Rajahonka, M. and Siuruainen, R., 2012, Towards IOT ecosystems and business models. In Internet of things, smart spaces, and next generation networking (pp. 15-26). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Nielsen, J. and Pernice, K., 2010, Eyetracking web usability, New Riders, pp. 22.

Outsource2india, 2018, Managing your entire outsourcing venture, Accessed on 7^th September 2018 from: < https://www.outsource2india.com/financial/australia-accounting-services.asp >

Riley-Huff, D.A., 2012, Web accessibility and universal design, Library Technology Reports, 48(7), pp.29-35.

Ross, D.F., 2016, Introduction to e-supply chain management: engaging technology to build market-winning business partnerships, CRC Press, pp. 56-98.

Sigala, M., 2017, Collaborative commerce in tourism: implications for research and industry. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(4), pp.346-355.

Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Liang, T.P., and Turban, D.C., 2017, Electronic commerce 2018: a managerial and social networks perspective, (pp. 17), Springer.

Zikmund, W.G., D’Alessandro, S., Winzar, H., Lowe, B. and Babin, B., 2017. Marketing Research: Asia-Pacific Edition, Cengage AU, (pp. 32-37).

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