Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) Marketing (Chapter 8)

The growth of consumer-to-consumer sales during the past few years has been noticeable and represents an important new trend in marketing communications. The C2C market environment is one in which a customer purchases goods from another customer using a third-party business or platform to facilitate the transaction.

Resources:

• Investopedia explanation
• How to use Craigslist
• Etsy Website
• Clarity Website

Discussion Questions:

1. Read the Investopedia article. What makes C2C such an inviting new format for consumers? To retailers?
2. Watch the How to use Craigslist video. Is there anything new about the format that you did not know? Discuss the strength of the method as compared to selling merchandise in a retail store or a company’s website.
3. Go to the Etsy website. How is it different from Craigslist? How can a traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) company utilize the Etsy site?
4. Go to the Clarity website. What major service does the company provide?
5. Explain how a marketing communications program for a C2C facilitator (Etsy, Craigslist, eBay) would be developed, including choices of media and types of marketing messages the company should provide.