BUSINESS MODELS 3 Chapitre A business model explains how an organization generates money. Some models are quite simple: a company produces goods or service and sells them to customers. If all goes well, the revenues from sales exceed the cost of operations and the company makes a profit. The company's customers may not be the final consumers as it is the case for B to C companies which are still called retailers, and businesses often sell to other businesses. These are called Business to Business (B to B) companies which used to be called wholesalers. With dedicated Internet platforms, consumers can now easily sell to other consumers, as in garage- sales; that is called Consumer to Consumer (C to C) business. Business operations within a country are called domestic operations as opposed to overseas or international operations. A brick- and- mortar business describes a traditional enterprise that operates in a building, when compared to an Internet company that operates online or over the Internet. I Traditional business models Some business models: - Manufacturer model: the company produces goods and sells them to wholesalers and retailers, with a margin. - Merchant model: wholesalers and retailers that sell goods with a margin. - Brokerage business model: a broker is an individual (or parties: a brokerage firm) that arranges transactions between a seller and a buyer for a commission or fee when the deal is executed. - Auction sales: goods or services are offered up for bids and sold to the highest bidder. Auctions sales set the prices for unique items such as fine art and antiquities. - Subscription model: users are charged a periodic - daily, monthly, or annual - fee to subscribe to a service. The traditional press model combines subscriptions with advertising. 245http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_(economics