It's Not Just B2C vs B2B Anymore | Hacker News Reader

It's Not Just B2C vs B2B Anymore

justinjackson.ca

11 pointsrmason3 comments

Interesting perspective, but they are still b2b, just focusing on small businesses vs. big businesses.

I'm the author of the post. I understand where you're coming from, but you're missing the nuance I mentioned in the article.

First, many "B2B" products are widely used by individual consumers for personal projects. For example, I've used Canva for family birthday cards and Mailchimp for my family newsletter. Running groups use Slack. Couples use Notion to plan their family calendar.

Second, today's line between "consumer" and "small business" is blurry. Is a YouTuber a consumer or an "aspirational business owner?" What about a freelance writer or a hobby podcaster? The prosumer movement is changing traditional definitions: users often start as consumers and evolve into businesses over time.

Third, the traditional B2B attributes (long sales cycles, demos, etc.) often don't apply to modern, self-serve software products. The buying process looks more like B2C: individual buyers with a credit card decide what to buy based on personal preference, brand, friendship groups, etc.

Finally, how useful is it to use the term "B2B" when it describes a solo freelancer buying project management software or a Fortune 500 company investing in enterprise-wide solutions? Are we lumping together the indie creator purchasing a $10/month tool with the government agency signing a million-dollar contract?

Products like Canva, ChatGPT, MailChimp, Carrd, Transistor, Fathom Analytics, Trello, Slack, Notion, and Tailwind UI achieved success by broking out of the traditional B2B mold and serving a broader spectrum of users with a single, versatile product.

I think this is just more of knowing your market but still b2b. For example, I know of many b2b products that market to individual team-leads. They price themselves to be easy to expense by a team lead, but once more teams adopt the product, they switch into enterprise pricing/sales tactics.

There are some parts of the world where b2b has different laws around invoicing, payment terms, etc. from b2c. For example, here in the Netherlands, I have to provide min 14-day terms on business invoices, along with very specific rules for those invoices. On b2c sales, I need to provide a return/refund policy that adheres to Dutch law, I can charge late fees, and I can have the consumer pay up-front.

So, I get your nuance, but sometimes the law doesn't give us the freedom to use it... or we don't want to because then it introduces legal nuance that can be bad for business.

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