#1 E-Commerce
Examples
Dollar Shave Club
Dollar Shave Club is only available online through its
website, eliminating the need for physical stores, in-
person sales staff and paying vendor margins.
IKEA
IKEA presents all its inventory on its website. This
allows customers to both preview products they want to
buy in the store as well as to order them to their home.
How does it work?
● Traditional Products or services are delivered
through online channels.
● Customers benefit from higher availability and
convenience. The company sells online directly to
customers.
Ask Yourself!
● Can I offer my entire product/service online?
● If not, what part of my product/service can be
offered online?
 #2 Customer Loyalty
Examples
VISA
VISA lets its credit card customers collect reward points
for each spend. By offering money and in-kind rewards
for a certain amount of collected reward points,
customers are incentivized to use the card more.
American Airlines
American Airlines rewards passengers for flying and
spending with the airline. Through their loyalty program,
customers can earn status which allows benefits like
lounge access, upgrades and priority treatment as well
as spend loyalty points to purchase physical goods.
How does it work?
● Customers are retained and loyalty assured by
providing value beyond the actual product or
service itself, i.e., through incentive-based
programs.
● It creates an emotional connection and rewards
customers with special offers.
Ask Yourself!
● How can I create my own customer loyalty
program?
● How can I tie-up with existing customer loyalty
programs?
 #3 Lock-In
Examples
Apple
Apple products work well only with other Apple
products. Right from the Operating System (OS) to
devices like the mouse and bluetooth devices.
Nintendo
Once a customer owns a Nintendo console, the only
games compatible are the ones licensed by Nintendo
itself. This means that Nintendo generates additional
revenue with every game sold. It is generally not
possible to run 3rd party games on the console which
are not certified by Nintendo.
How does it work?
● Customers are locked into a vendor's world of
products/services.
● Using another vendor is impossible without
incurring substantial switching costs.
● Lock-ins are created by technological mechanisms
or interdependencies of products or services.
Ask Yourself!
● What world of products/services can I create
around my offering?
● How can I limit my customers to my world of
products/services and make switching hard?
 #4 Affiliation
Examples
Airbnb
Airbnb offers an affiliate program for gaining new
customers and hosts. Websites that feature an Airbnb
listing or showcase an Airbnb hosting get a commission
for every booking that they drive through their audience.
Social Media Influencers
Social media influencers review/advertise a companies
products on their Instagram page or YouTube channels
and have special limited time period codes that their
viewers can use to get a discount on the purchase of a
companies products.
How does it work?
● The company ties up with individuals or other
organizations outside of the main company to
promote the company’s product to the affiliate’s
audience.
● Affiliates are paid a fee per sale or a fixed fee for
displaying the product.
Ask Yourself!
● Who can my company tie-up with?
● Who can I give free samples to in exchange for
product reviews or endorsements?
 #5 Leverage Customer Data
Examples
Mozilla
Mozilla Firefox is free to use. Mozilla generates money
through the collection of user behavior inside its
applications. This data can be monetized with 3rd
parties such as advertisers and search engine
operators.
Best Buy
Best Buy collects customer data to make
recommendations based on the customers spending
behavior. This includes add-ons to certain products or
discounts or update alerts for products the customer
has looked for previously on the Best Buy website.
How does it work?
● New value is created by collecting customer data
and preparing it in beneficial ways for internal
usage or interested third-parties.
● Revenues are generated by either selling this data
directly to others or leveraging it for your own
company’s purposes, i.e. increasing advertising
effectiveness.
Ask Yourself!
● What data can I gather about my user and their
behavior patterns?
● Who would be interested in the data I gather from
my customers?
 #6 Experience Selling
Examples How does it work?
● The high quality of customer experience offered
Starbucks increases the perceived value of the product.
Starbucks offers an experience to all its customers. The ● This leads to higher customer demand and in turn,
sight of the busy baristas, to the comfortable ambiance, higher prices can be charged.
to the familiar aroma of brewing coffee and the sense of
exclusivity with its own branded cup size name (tall,
grande, venti)

Red Bull
Ask Yourself!
Associations with extreme sports (e.g. Formula One,
motocross, windsurfing, BMX and snowboarding) ● What unique experience can I offer my customers?
combined with the distinctive Red Bull branding ● What kind of lifestyle do I want my product to be
enables the company to charge higher prices for its associated with?
products.
 #7 Two-Sided Market
Examples How does it work?
● A two-sided market facilitates interactions between
LinkedIn multiple interdependent groups of customers.
The hiring functions in LinkedIn function as a two-sided ● The value of the platform increase as more groups
or more individuals of each group use it.
market. The value for both recruiters and candidates
increases with the number of jobs and candidates on
the platform.

Uber
Uber connects drivers who own/operate a vehicle with Ask Yourself!
riders who are looking for vehicular transportation for a ● What are the various group of stakeholders for my
short duration. product offering?
● How can I connect any of these groups with
another and provide value?
 #8 Direct Selling
Examples
Ryanair
Customers are able to book flight fares directly at the
official Ryanair website. Once the website was
launched within a year it accounted for three-quarters of
total sales. Today, 99% of sales occur on the website.
Lego
Lego has a network of brand stores, selling only Lego
products and accessories. They are placed in popular
locations and include exhibitions of complicated Lego
constructions consisting of thousands of Lego parts.
How does it work?
● A company's products are not sold through
intermediary channels but are available directly
from the manufacturer or service provider.
● The final cost of the product can be cheaper since
there is no retailer’s margin or any additional costs
associated with the intermediates.
Ask Yourself!
● How can I eliminate existing distribution channels?
● What infrastructure or technology do I need to offer
my product directly to consumers?
 #9 Freemium
Examples
Spotify
Spotify is a freemium service; basic features are free
with advertisements or limitations, while additional
features, such as improved streaming quality and music
downloads, are offered via paid subscriptions.
Dropbox
A basic version with limited hosting space is offered to
customers for free. However, customers then have the
chance to purchase subscriptions for larger amounts of
storage space.
How does it work?
● The basic version of an offering is given away for
free in the hope of persuading the customers to
pay for the premium version.
● The free version attracts the highest volume of
customer. The generally smaller volume of paying
‘premium customers’ generate the revenue, which
funds the free offering.
Ask Yourself!
● What version of my offering can I afford to give for
free to attract customers?
● What version of my offering can convert free users
to premium customers?
 #10 Supermarkets
Examples
IKEA
Based on ”Nordic living”, IKEA offers everything related
to home and living as well as groceries. This includes
furniture for indoor and outdoor, accessories and food.
Best Buy
Best Buy offers a wide variety of electronics, including
products for various price and quality requirements.
This allows them to target customers with varying
purchasing power and provide comparisons of products
prices and qualities.
How does it work?
● A company sells a large variety of readily available
products and accessories under one roof.
Generally, the assortment of products is large but
the prices are kept low.
● More customers are attracted due to the great
range on offer.
Ask Yourself!
● Does your offering allow for many products to be
sold at the same place?
● How can I tweak my offering so my business can
be a one stop shop for my customers?
 #11 Rent Instead of Buy
Examples How does it work?
● The customer does not buy a product, but instead
Hewlett-Packard (HP) rents it.
Hewlett-Packard allowed its business customers to rent ● This reduces the money needed to gain access to
equipment. This allows customers to balance the product.
seasonality in server and storage capacity, data center ● Efficiency of product utilization is increased as time
move or consolidations, or disaster recovery. of non-usage is reduced

Porsche
Porsche Passport allows customers to rent a car via the
Ask Yourself!
monthly subscription. It consists of an all-access
subscription for $2,000 to $3,000 per month and ● What resources can you rent instead of buy?
includes a variety of car models (e.g. two-door and four- ● What part of your offering can you give to your
door models), from which the customers may flexibly customer to rent over buy?
choose a model of their liking.
 #12 Target The Underserved Communities
Examples
Walmart
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Walmart
introduced banking services, targeting the poor. It
provided services to un-banked customers, for instance
in form of prepaid credit cards.
H&M
H&M offers all its products at really low prices. This also
includes e.g. formal and business wear, allowing to
target a large group of customers with a low purchasing
power for clothing.
How does it work?
● The product offering does not target the premium
customer, but rather, the customer positioned at
the base of the pyramid.
● A small profit is generated from each product sold,
but the company benefits from the higher sales.
Ask Yourself!
● Which of my customer segments are at the bottom
of the pyramid?
● What value can I offer to this segment of my
customers?
 #13 Guaranteed Availability
Examples How does it work?
● The availability of a product or service is
Dropbox guaranteed, resulting in almost zero downtime.
Dropbox file hosting service is available 24/7, allowing ● The customer can use the offering as required,
which minimizes losses resulting from downtime.
customers to access their files anytime and from
The company uses expertise and economies of
anywhere.
scale to lower operation costs and achieve these
availability levels.
Amazon Web Services
AWS guarantees its customers 24/7 availability of cloud
computing capacity. This allows them to price in Ask Yourself!
maintenance and sell their capacity at a premium with ● What service can I offer that is 24x7 available?
full service. ● What systems or infrastructure do I need in place
to make this possible?
 #14 Long Tail
Examples
Facebook
Instead of offering advertising solutions to only a few
companies. Facebook offers advertising to all kinds of
companies ranging from small to big in advertising
budget. Although individual small customers may not
have a big advertising spend, the amount of companies
adds up to significant revenues.
Apple iPod/ iTunes
Apple offers its customers a wide variety of music in its
iTunes store. Revenue with individual songs might be
small but through the sheer mass of songs users
download it generates a substantial amount of revenue.
How does it work?
● Instead of concentrating on blockbusters, the main bulk
of revenues is generated through a 'long tail' of niche
products.
● Individually, these neither demand high volumes, nor
allow for a high margin.
● If a vast variety of these products are offered in
sufficient amounts, the profits from resultant small sales
can add up to a significant amount.
Ask Yourself!
● What are the several revenue streams for your
offering?
● What are the ‘niche’ products you offer ?
 #15 Cross Selling
Examples
Shell
Royal Dutch Shell gas stations began selling items
unrelated to petrol already in the 1930s. For instance,
food and beverages, magazines, household goods etc.
This leveraged the network of existing infrastructure to
cross-sell a wide array of various products to the same
customer base.
CEWE Color
Cewe offers all kinds of photo products. These range
from photo books and calendars to gifts and phone
cases.
How does it work?
● In this model, services or products from another
industry are added to the offering, leveraging key
skills and resources.
● The products may not be linked to the main
industry.
● Additional revenue can be generated with a few
changes in the infrastructure.
Ask Yourself!
● What other products/services from other industries
can I add to my offering?
● How will it complement my core offering and add
to my revenue?
 Acknowledgements

Business Model Navigator by BML lab https://businessmodelnavigator.com

Shamir Joseph https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamir-joseph/