The major different types of e-commerce are: business-to-business (B2B); business-to-consumer (B2C); business-to-government (B2G); consumer-to-consumer (C2C); and mobile commerce (m-commerce).
B2B – Business to Business
E-commerce has been in use for quite a few years and is more commonly known as EDI (electronic data interchange). In the past EDI was conducted on a direct link of some form between the two businesses where as today the most popular connection is the internet. The two businesses pass information electronically to each other. B2B e-commerce currently makes up about 94% of all e-commerce transactions. Typically in the B2B environment, E-Commerce can be used in the following processes:
- Procurement;
- order fulfillment;
- Managing trading-partner relationships.
B2C – Business to Consumer
Business to Consumer e-commerce is relatively new. This is where the consumer accesses the system of the supplier. It is still a two way function but is usually done solely through the Internet. B2C can also relate to receiving information such as share prices, insurance quotes, on-line newspapers, or weather forecasts. The supplier may be an existing retail outlet such as a high street store; it has been this type of business that has been successful in using E-Commerce to deliver services to customers. These businesses may have been slow in gearing-up for E-Commerce compared to the innovative dot.com start ups, but they usually have a sound commercial structure as well as in-depth experience of running a business – something which many dotcoms lacked, causing many to fail.
C2B – Consumer to Business
Consumer to Business is a growing arena where the consumer requests a specific service from the business. Example: Harry is planning a holiday in Darwin. He requires a flight in the first week of December and is only willing to pay Rs. 250. Harry places a submission with in a web based C2B facility. Dodgy Brothers Airways accesses the facility and sees Harry’s submission. Due to it being a slow period, the airline offers Harry a return fare for Rs. 250.
B2E – Business to Employee
Business to Employee e-commerce is growing in use. This form of E-commerce is more commonly known as an ‘Intranet’. An intranet is a web site developed to provide employees of an organisation with information. The intranet is usually access through the organisations network, it can and is often extended to an Entrant which uses the Internet but restricts uses by sign on and password.
C2C – Consumer to Consumer
These sites are usually some form of an auction site. The consumer lists items for sale with a commercial auction site. Other consumers access the site and place bids on the items. The site then provides a connection between the seller and buyer to complete the transaction. The site provider usually charges a transaction cost. In reality this site should be call C2B2C.
B2G e-commerce
Business-to-government e-commerce or B2G is generally defined as commerce between companies and the public sector. It refers to the use of the Internet for public procurement, licensing procedures, and other government-related operations. This kind of e-commerce has two features: first, the public sector assumes a pilot/leading role in establishing e-commerce; and second, it is assumed that the public sector has the greatest need for making its procurement system more effective.
C2B E-Commerce
C2B or Consumer to Business transactions involves reverse auctions, which empower the consumer to drive transactions. A concrete example of this when competing airlines gives a traveler best travel and ticket offers in response to the traveler’s post that she wants to fly from New York to San Francisco. There is little information on the relative size of global C2C e-commerce. However, C2C figures of popular C2C sites such as eBay and Napster indicate that this market is quite large. These sites produce millions of dollars in sales every day.
M-commerce
M-commerce (mobile commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services through wireless technology-i.e., handheld devices such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Japan is seen as a global leader in m-commerce. As content delivery over wireless devices becomes faster, more secure, and scalable, some believe that m-commerce will surpass wireline e-commerce as the method of choice for digital commerce transactions. This may well be true for the Asia-Pacific where there are more mobile phone users than there are Internet users.
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