There are numerous categories of e-commerce. But today this article will be focused on the four basic categories of commerce conducted online. Today e-commerce is one of the powerful technologies that is making life very easy and simple for everybody around the world.
E-commerce is derived from the word E-business. E-business is a broad term that consist of terms like e-commerce, e-tailing and many others. Just like it name goes, it’s referring to the use of internet, web, intranet, extranet and other networks to carry out a business.
So here, we can say e-commerce is a subset of e-business. Academically, e-commerce is said to be the buying and selling of goods and services as well as transmitting any data over an electronic network thus, primarily the internet.
Apparently, we are exposed to the Business to Consumer (B2C) type of e-commerce more than that of the Consumer to Business (C2B), Consumer to Consumer (C2C) and Business to Business (B2B).
Purchasing an item from popular e-commerce stores like Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, Jumia and many others is what we call Business to Consumer (B2C). Stay with us as we elaborate the four basic types of e-commerce.
Table of Contents
Main Basic Categories Of E-commerce
1. Business to Consumer: (Popularly known as the B2C)
This is the most popular type of electronic commerce. It’s said to be the transaction conducted between business and a consumer on an electronic network primarily the internet.
With this, you can say anytime you buy good or services for your personal use from a business or an organization is classified as a Business to consumer commerce. A daily life example is, when someone purchases a Fridge or Laptop from an electronic retailer.
Here, the transaction was conducted between a business and an individual who is using that particular goods or let’s say services for a personal use.
So we can conclude by saying, if you purchase a Television, Radio set, Speakers, Furniture’s and any other thing from online stores like Amazon, Flip-kart, eBay, Best-buy, Jumia etc… it is termed as a Business to Consumer e-commerce. (B2C)
2. Consumer to Business: (Popularly known as the C2B):
The Consumer to Business e-commerce is also occurring between a consumer and a business. But here, the individual is rather that one with value or offering a particular service to the business. Thus, the consumer offer a business with a fee based service.
This is also conducted online, just like other electronic commerce. The difference between the B2C and the C2B is that, during the B2C the business rather offers value or service to the consumer.
And on the other hand, during the C2B, the consumer is rather the one that offers value or service to the business. A real life example is, a photographer selling his photo-stock to businesses on his website.
Or a blogger offering a business an advertisement opportunity to reach out to new customers on his/her website. Or offer them a solo ad opportunity. Thus, when companies try to reach out to new customers using an email list built by a blogger or digital marketer.
3. Business to Business: (Popularly known as the B2B)
Here, just like it name goes, Business to Business, this simply means a business transaction that is conducted between two (2) businesses on the internet, mostly via an online sale portal. This very common when businesses provide raw materials for other business in other for them to use it for their projects.
An example is an African company who ships cocoa from Africa to another chocolate company in Belgium. Here, the transaction is completed between two different businesses.
Another example is a car manufacturing company let’s say Cadillac or Mercedes-Benz buying engines from an engine manufacturing company in United Arab Emirate (UAE) for their cars they are yet to manufacture.
The B2B transactions are mostly efficient with the use of some tools like emails and telephone calls. This is because mostly deals with large sales and big money when the businesses involved are relevant in their industries.
4. Consumer to Consumer: The type of E-commerce that deals with auction. (C2C)
So this type of E-commerce deals with auctioning. This is a business module that takes place between two (2) different consumers on the internet. Mostly, a consumer selling or offering his/her goods or service to another consumer who is in need of it.
With this business module, there is no business or company involved. A daily life example is; when pre-owned or refurbished items are being put on auction on websites.
A popular e-commerce platform that auctioning takes place most online today is eBay. An American e-commerce company that is known to have some sort of partnership with PayPal.
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In conclusion,
Today e-commerce is one of the powerful technologies that is making life very easy and simple for everybody around the world. It has made buying and selling very easy and quick, sharing of business data and making electronic transaction also efficient.
Sincerely it has not only made life easy, but it has also helped nurture economic globalization. By promoting interstates business and transactions. Providing employment for individuals and making business owners Millionaires and billionaires.
Every e-commerce platform runs on some basic processes or components like; Electronic payment powers, catalog management, Event notification, Search management, access control and Personalizing etc…
Read more about the components of e-commerce
Hi I’m Michael, a digital marketer and a webmaster at Bronze-review. I have a degree in Political science and Information science. I’m an introvert type that enjoys listening to music whiles working on blogs. Even though I didn’t read marketing or computer science in school, I’m very much interested in digital marketing and technology related stuff. You can contact me on bronzegroupsteam1@gmail.com.
