A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MICROSOFT’S B2C AND B2B SITES

The overall purpose of this research paper is to present a marketing strategy by Microsoft which is fertile for analysis. To this extent, it is the intent of this author to address both Microsoft B2B versus B2C e-commerce strategies, including the websites. This author has chosen the same industry because it is believed by this author that the two will best compliment each other, not only for similarities, but for differences as well. In point of fact, Microsoft has a plethora of B2C websites as well as B2B websites. Obviously the B2C websites are intended for e-commerce. For example, in one Microsoft website entitled OS Commerce-Experts, Microsoft appears to be attempting a specific niche market specifically within the state of Virginia. Other observations I noticed on the website had to do with internet users. (Web post, vab2b.com, p.1) While this author has acknowledged that this cite decidedly appears to be e-commerce oriented (i.e. www.oscommerce/experts.com), it also reflects distinctive trademarks of e-commerce.
To a great extent, and in my opinion, the aforementioned website also has great application to B2B users, albeit i...