Customer:
A customer is an entity that purchases goods or services from the business. The customer pays the compensation to the business either in cash or in kind. The purchase could be a credit purchase which creates a monetary obligation of payment on the customer.
Most of the time, customers can be classified into two parts.
- Where the customer is at the end and buying the product for consumption.
- Where a business is buying the product for resale purposes.
Consumer:
The consumer is the one who consumes the product. Anyone can buy goods for consumption. Anyone can purchase goods or services for consumption, whether an individual or an organization.
For Example, A Furniture manufacturer buys furniture for enhancing the sitting arrangement on the premises. In this situation, business is the consumer of that furniture.
Customer V/S Consumer
A customer is an entity who purchases a product for either their, someone else’s consumption or resale purposes.
For Example, Parents paying for their child’s education makes them a customer as they are paying for that service, but the end consumer is their child who is going to consume that education.
Ways to interact with the customers
Selling the Consumer goods:
Consumer goods are the most common business model as the customer will also be the consumer of your goods.
Consumer goods can be anything that useful in day-to-day life. A pencil, a pen, toothpaste, etc.
As the name suggests, a consumer good is something that should be easily accessible because a consumer needs this product in their daily lives so so you should also be easily accessible to the customers.
E-Commerce:
Customer wants their life to be as convenient as possible. E-commerce helps them to have that luxury.
Customers can access whatever they want to buy from the convenience of their home with just one click.
If the customers are going towards e-commerce, the business should show its presence.
Businesses can have an E-Commerce shop in the form of a website or the platforms providing these services. You can go for both online and offline routes if you want to.
Selling a product to a business
It is not a very common concept, but it is one of the significant steps in the whole process of buying from the manufacturer to the end consumer, as the end consumer is not going to be your customer but you are going to sell your product to another business.
For example, you are a furniture manufacturer, and you have sold your goods to a restaurant. In this case, the restaurant owner is the customer who will use this furniture as an asset for his business.
Website:
Website is not very different from e-commerce. Businesses selling on their websites eliminate the commission associated with using third-party platforms like Amazon. There are some establishment costs associated with websites. These costs could be a domain name, hosting plan, professional emails, and a lot more, depending upon the requirement of the business.
Websites are one of the best sources to sell a digital product.
A digital product can be anything from a simple resource such as an e-book or proper software to running a computer.
The advantage of a digital product is that it is slightly less expensive than a physical product.
For example: if your customer is a website owner and wants to make his website look good and faster, you can build a website theme for the purpose and sell it on your website.
You can offer different plans for the specific needs of the customer. If someone wants to buy the license for one year or permanently, you can price your product accordingly.
Bottomline
To conclude, I would like to say that one needs to have a great business plan to counter the market needs.
Business owners should identify the problems first, what kind of problems their customers are facing, and what can be a possible solution to their problem.
Business owners need to find their customers and launch a product according to their needs as each customer may have different needs according to their geographical area and their willingness to spend on a particular product.
Every business owner should create an outline before starting the business to have a complete idea for prospects.
Customer needs more services to be invested in a product.
Hotels providing Internet and online reservation system with other services give themselves a slight edge.
In conclusion, it is safe to say that customers are the soul of an organization finding it tough to sustain itself in the market and putting you ahead of your competition. Retention of the loyal customers and word of mouth by them gives businesses that need cousion.
It is up to the organization how it looks at their customers? The one it decodes with strategic significance will be a ambitious force in the market.
