Types of E-commerce

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Editorial Staff
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Types of E-commerce
Types of E-commerce : Photocredit; pixabay

E-commerce or eCommerce involves the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks. e-commerce types represent a range of various schemes of transactions which are distinguished according to their participation’s.
Below are the types of E-commerce that we have;
· Business-to-Business (B2B)
Business-to-business (B2B) describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. Constrasting terms are business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-government (B2G).

The volume of B2B (Business-to-Business) transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical raw materials, and only one B2C transaction, specifically sale of the finished several B2B transactions such as buying tires, glass for windscreens, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transactions, a finished vehicle sold to the consumer, is a single (B2B) transactions.

B2B is also used in the context of communication and collaboration. Many businesses are now using social media to connect with their consumers (B2B) however, they are now using similar tools within the business so employees can connect with one another. When communication Is taking place amongst employees, this can be referred to as “B2B” communication.

· Business-to-consumer (B2B)
Business-to-consumer (B2C, sometimes also called Business-to-customer) describes activities of businesses serving end consumers with products and/or services. An example of a B2C transaction would be a person buying available for purchase that is the purchase of the leather, laces, rubber, etc. however, the sale of the shoe from the shoemaker to the retailer would be considered a (B2B) transaction.

· Business-to-Employee (B2E)
Business-to-employee (B2D) electronic commerce uses an intra-business network which allows companies to provide products and/or services to their employees. Typically, companies use B2E networks to automate employee-related corporate processes.

Examples of B2E applications include:

  • Online insurance policy management
  • Corporate announcement dissemination
  •  Online supply requests
  • Special employee offers
  • Employee benefits reporting

· Business-to-Government (B2G)
Business-to-government (B2G) is a derivative of B2B marketing and often referred to as a market definition of “public sector marketing” which encompasses marketing products and services to various government levels – including federal, state and local – through integrated marketing communications techniques such as strategic public relations, branding, marcom, advertising, and web-based communications.

B2G networks provide a platform for business to bid on government opportunities which are presented as solicitations in the form of RFPs in a reverse auction fashion. Public sector organizations (PSO’s) post tenders in the form of RFP’s, RFI’s, Sources Sought, etc. and suppliers respond to them.

Government agencies typically have pre-negotiated standing contracts vetting the vendors/suppliers and their products and services for set prices. These can be stae, local or federal contracts and some may be grandfathered in by other entities (i.e. California’s MAS Multiple Award Scheldule will recognize the federal government contract holder’s prices on a GSA General Services Administration Schedule).

There are multiple social platforms dedicated to this vertical market and they have risen in popularity with the onset of the ARRA/Stimulus Program and increased government funds available to commercial entities for both grants and contracts.

· Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

Types of E-commerce
Consumer-to-business (C2B) is an electronic commerce business model in which consumers (individuals) offer products and services to companies and the business model where companies offer goods and services to consumers (business-to-consumer = B2C). we can see this example in blogs or internet forums where the author offers a link back to an online business facilitating the purchase of some product (like a book on Amazon.com), and the author might receive affiliate revenue from a successful sale.

This kind of economic relationship is qualified as an inverted business type. The advent of the C2B scheme is due to major changes:

· Connecting a large group of people to a bidirectional network has made this sort of commercial relationship possible. The large traditional media outlets are one direction relationship whereas the internet is bidirectional one.

· Decreased cost of technology: individuals now have access to technologies that were once only available to large companies (digital printing and acquisition technology, high performance computer, powerful software)

· Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) (or citizen-to-citizen) electronic commerce 

This involves the electronically-facilitated transactions between consumers through some third party. A common example is the online auction, in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers bid to purchase it; the third party generally charges a flat fee or commission. The sites are only intermediaries, just there to match consumers. They do not have to check quality of the products being offered. Consumers-to-consumer (C2C) marketing is the creation of a product or service with the specific promotional strategy being for consumers to share that product or service with others as brand advocates based on the value of the product.

· Government-to-Business (G2B)
Government-to-Business (abbreviated G2B) is the online non-commercial interaction between local and central government and the commercial business sector, rather than private individuals (G2C). for example http://www.dti.gov.uk is a government web site where business can get information and advice on e-business ‘best practice’. http://g2b.perm.ru is another example

· Government-to-government (abbreviated G2G) is the online non-commercial interaction between Government organizations, departments, and authorities and other Government organizations, departments, and authorities. Its use is common in the UK, along with G2C, the online non-commercial interaction of local and central Government and private individuals, and G2B the online non-commercial interaction of local and central Government and the commercial business sector.

 E-commerce  distribution channels
e-commerce has grown in importance as companies have adopted Pure-click and Brick and Click channel systems. We can distinguish between pure-click and brick and click channel system adopted by companies.

· Pure-click companies are those that have launched a website without any previous existence as a firm. It is imperative that such companies must set up and operate their e-commerce websites very carefully. Customer service is of paramount importance, e.g. AMAZON.com

· Brick and Click companies are those existing companies that have added an online site for e-commerce. Initially, Brick and Click companies were skeptical whether or not to add an online e-commerce channel for fear that selling their products might produce channel conflict with their offline retailers, agents, or their own stores. However, they eventually added internet to their distribution channel portfolio after seeing how much business their online competitors were generating, e.g. futurebazaar.com


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