To sustain a long-term growth, a company has to select and fine-tune a business model to fit with its underlying marketable products – whether there were designed in response to a market-pull or a technology-push. Here I attempt to throw together a long list of business models that I have recently come across. 

Business Model Canvas

These grids give us a systematic views of a business:

Pricing

Leverage customer loyalty to profit from related accessories.

E.g. Profit from the razor blade replacement and sell the core item cheaply

E.g. (Inverse) Apple sells iPhone with a high mark-up price but its music, apps etc. are less pricy.

Cheap basic services, high charge on everything else

E.g. Budget airlines

Free basic version, charge the advanced usage

Long-term low-price payments. Maintain a safe customer base

E.g. Netflix

Low profit margin, rely on the fast turnaround time for suppliers and customers. Hold the stocks only for a short period of time and pay back the suppliers relatively quickly.

E.g. Amazon

Middleman

Create value for demand and offer sides, taking commissions as the middleman

E.g. Airbnb

One-off sales, as in most of the high street stores. To succeed however, one should sell to a qualified audience – not everyone, to sustain the business model.

Webstore only

E.g. ASOS

Online + offline

E.g. Almost all apparrel companies

Aggregate multiple sellers into a single platform 

E.g. eBay, Etsy

No product or inventory but just a store. Sell products by partner sellers, who send the goods directly to the customer.

Network Effect

Feature products/services and get commission on a popular site

Gain popularity and receive commission to endorse and advertise for products.

E.g. Influencers, Celebrity, Famous Instagrammers

A multi-level pyramid: get commissions for their own sales and their recruits’ sales

Gain mass to populate the website with contents, and profit from contextual advertising

E.g. Quora / Reddit

Sell data

E.g. Twitter, Facebook

On-demand Usage

Access personnel on demand, per hour/day/project charges

E.g. Consultancy

Software, infrastructure, and platform as a service. Pay on demand.

Distribution Channels

Start with the wholesaler, build value-added features/finishing and sell directly to customer

Distribute rights to operate, expand the brand quickly with low entrance barriers to franchisees.

Approach to Retail Customers

Require lots of human interactions. Rely on the relationship between the salesperson and the customer.

E.g. Salon, Consulting firms

Require minimal human intervention

E.g. SurveyMonkey, IKEA