Types of e-commerce activities
E-commerce Defined: Types, History, and Examples
What Is Electronic Commerce (E-commerce)?
Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, is the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. E-commerce can be conducted on computers, tablets, smartphones, and other smart devices. Nearly every imaginable product and service is now available through e-commerce, and it has upended how many companies and entire industries do business.
Key Takeaways
- E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet.
- It is conducted over computers, tablets, smartphones, and other smart devices.
- Almost anything can be purchased through e-commerce today, and it has lowered the barriers to entry for many types of businesses, such as retailers.
- E-commerce can be a substitute for brick-and-mortar stores, though some businesses choose to maintain both.
- E-commerce operates in several market segments, including business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer, and consumer-to-business.
Understanding E-commerce
As noted above, e-commerce is the process of buying and selling products and services online. But it involves more than simply a buyer and a seller, relying on a vast, often invisible, infrastructure to keep it running.
E-commerce has helped companies (especially those with a narrow reach, like small, local businesses) gain access to a wider market by providing cheaper and more efficient sales and distribution channels for their products or services.
While some businesses exist entirely online, others straddle the real and virtual worlds. Target (TGT), for example, is one of many giant retailers that has supplemented its brick-and-mortar presence with an online store that allows customers to purchase everything from clothes and coffeemakers to toothpaste and action figures without leaving their homes.
At the other end of the scale spectrum, individual sellers increasingly engage in e-commerce transactions via t
Types of e-commerce
There are many types of e-commerce models, based on market segmentation, that can be used to conducted business online. The 6 types of business models that can be used in e-commerce include:Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Consumer-to-Business (C2B), Business-to-Business (B2B), Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C), Business-to-Administration (B2A), and Consumer-to-Administration
Business-to-business (B2B)
Main article: B2B e-commerce
B2B e-commerce refers to the sale of goods or services between businesses via an online sales portal. While sometimes the buyer is the end user, often the buyer resells to the consumer. This type of e-commerce typically applies to the relationship between producers and wholesalers; it may additionally remain applied to the relationship between the producers or the wholesalers and the retailers themselves. However, the same relationship can also occur between service providers and business organizations. B2B typically requires more venture capital and a longer sales cycle, but results in higher order value and more recurring purchases.
As newer generations become decision makers in business, B2B ecommerce will become more important. In 2015, Google found that close to half of B2B buyers were millennials—nearly double the amount reported in 2012.
Examples of this model are ExxonMobil Corporation, the Chevron Corporation, Boeing, and Archer-Daniels-Midland. These businesses have custom, enterprise ecommerce platforms that work directly with other businesses in a closed environment.
The advantages of B2B e-commerce include:
- Convenience: While companies can sell through physical storefronts or take transactions by phone, B2B commerce often takes place online, where companies advertise their products and services, allow for demonstrations and make it easy to place bulk orders. Sellers also b
Definition of E-commerce
Though e-commerce is generally regarded to be just the trading of goods and services online, e-commerce is actually more than that as it involves economic activities and electronic payments along with the trading of goods and services.
E-commerce, also referred to as electronic commerce, is a type of business model in which business transactions are done over the world wide web or over an electronic medium.
E-commerce is not to be confused with e-business, as e-business involves businesses conducting their activities online but e-commerce involves business transactions between buyers and sellers over electronic media.
Currently, different types of goods and services are being regularly exchanged using the different types of e-commerce, with the majority of the world population currently preferring online services to offline services. This has led to e-commerce being termed a disruptive technology.
Examples of e-commerce include dropshipping, crowdfunding, electronic payment, online subscriptions, internet banking, online shopping, and digital transactions. For example, online shopping through Amazon or electronic payment systems like PayPal.
Types of E-commerce
There are four main types of e-commerce, they are:
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
Business-to-Business (B2B)
Consumer-to-Business (C2B)
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
E-commerce: Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
B2C is the most common e-commerce model due to the ability of e-commerce businesses to create a direct link to their products or services with consumers electronically. Business-to-consumer involves the direct business transaction between businesses and their consumers over electronic means. It is also considered the retail model of the four e-commerce models.
Examples of companies who practice the B2C e-commerce model include Facebook, Amazon, Walmart, Google, and Alibaba.
E-commerce: Business-to-Business (B2B)
B2B is an e-commerce m
- Types of e-commerce pdf
Types of e-commerce
Generally speaking, when we think of e-commerce, we think of an online commercial transaction between a supplier and a client. However, and although this idea is right, we can be more specific and actually divide e-commerce into six major types, all with different characteristics.
There are 6 basic types of e-commerce:
- Business-to-Business (B2B)
- Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
- Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
- Consumer-to-Business (C2B).
- Business-to-Administration (B2A)
- Consumer-to-Administration (C2A)
1. Business-to-Business (B2B)
Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce encompasses all electronic transactions of goods or services conducted between companies. Producers and traditional commerce wholesalers typically operate with this type of electronic commerce.
2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
The Business-to-Consumer type of e-commerce is distinguished by the establishment of electronic business relationships between businesses and final consumers. It corresponds to the retail section of e-commerce, where traditional retail trade normally operates.
These types of relationships can be easier and more dynamic, but also more sporadic or discontinued. This type of commerce has developed greatly, due to the advent of the web, and there are already many virtual stores and malls on the Internet, which sell all kinds of consumer goods, such as computers, software, books, shoes, cars, food, financial products, digital publications, etc.
When compared to buying retail in traditional commerce, the consumer usually has more information available in terms of informative content and there is also a widespread idea that you’ll be buying cheaper, without jeopardizing an equally personalized customer service, as well as ensuring quick processing and delivery of your order.
3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) type e-commerce encompasses all electronic transactions of goods or services conducted between consumers. Generally