Types of E-Commerce
Divulging the types of e-commerce requires throwing some light on the narrow line of distinction between e-commerce and e-business on the first hand. While e-commerce uses ICT in making inter-business, inter-organizational and business-to-consumer transactions, e-business is a broader term and uses technology in enhancing one’s business. It concentrates on adding customer value by using digital media.
E-Commerce can be classified into the following categories:
· B2B e-commerce – B2B or business-to-business is the type of e-commerce in which the trading takes place between two businesses or organizations/companies without the involvement of consumer. The product may then be sold to the consumer by any of the organization under its brand name. For example, a car manufacturer may purchase some of its accessories from another company and then sell the finished product to its customers. Another, direct specimen is HP and Intel. HP computers are integrated with processors made by Intel. A majority of such deals occurs over the internet. A lot of revenue in e-commerce is garnered from B2B type of internet commerce.
· B2C e-commerce – In recent times, B2C or business-to-consumer e-commerce has grown into the most popular and prolific form of online trade. It is commerce between businesses and consumers. It is more commonly known as online retailing and involves customers purchasing goods and services online. Amazon.com, Dell computers, Drugstore.com, Travelocity, etc are some of the flourishing examples of B2C e-commerce. B2C e-commerce has facilitated a click and drag online store in place of the conventional brick and mortar retailing stores. It has reduced transaction costs by increasing consumers’ access to information thereby easing the whole procedure of buying and selling goods and services. Consumers can now easily compare various features offered by different brands over the same product and add genuineness to their decision. In addition to this, we also have some good online reviewers like rotten tomatoes, top10reviews, etc, that provides online reviews for various products and services and helps consumers in making a best buy both online as well as offline.
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· B2G e-commerce – B2G stands for business-to-government e-commerce. When the commerce takes place between companies and some government organization, it is called as business-to-government commerce. These types of transactions are usually undertaken in public interest in order to make the system more transparent and fidel.
· C2C e-commerce – Consumer-to-consumer commerce is the trade between two consumers or private individuals. C2C transactions bear an analogy with the traditional trading methods corresponding to classified ads, auctions and other vertical industries. Popular websites facilitating C2C e-commerce are eBay, BaZee.com, Napster, etc. The consumer commerce over online bazaar helps buyers to negotiate and buy at a selective price.
· M-commerce – M-commerce or mobile commerce is the budding area of digital commerce which uses wireless technology for online trading. Cellular telephones, tablets, personal digital assistants and other handheld devices are used for m-commerce. This imminent source of electronic commerce facilitates a faster, cheaper, easily accessible and more secure method for exchange of goods and services. Mobile commerce has stimulated other useful applications such as mobile/SMS banking, e-recharge, application development and many more.
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