E-commerce is one of the highly utilized methods for buying and selling of products, goods, and various services. The name suggests the way of functioning is through the internet or electronic commerce. The transferring of funds, data, and money all come under E-commerce activities. Categories of E-commerce used by businesses for conducting daily activities are mentioned below.
1.Business-to-Business (B2B)
Business-to-Business is the type of activity conducted within businesses that can be a sales activity or conducting services. Following the method of B2B, it makes it easier to increase productivity in the firm and to save expenses associated with manual tasks like commuting of sales team for receiving orders. One such firm offering marketing and sales software within the businesses is HubSpot.
2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
Business-to-Consumer is the category of E-commerce where the business is lead to supply products or various services directly to the consumer. The products are bought directly by the consumer and monetary transactions are done between the consumer and business directly. Consumers prefer using this method as it helps them to select the products, or services by themselves and can search as per their requirements of the product. Amazon, the eCommerce giant, is one of the best examples to understand the functionality of B2C.
3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
The method of C2C takes place when the trading of products takes place from customer to customer directly without any firm’s involvement. The flea market is the kind of an event where a consumer is selling the item to another consumer. These transactions are also provided in the newspapers and on different advertising platforms as per the use of the products and the target consumers to sell them. The market in this way lets consumers find the same product at a cheaper rate than the original price and saves energy in putting out their requirements in the market. eBay is the most used website for C2C activities for the last ten years.
4. Consumer-to-Business (C2B)
Consumer-to-Business is the trading that takes place from the consumer’s end to provide value, and products to the business. A better understanding of the same can be done by sole traders who provide services like, financial planner, grocery stores and freelancers providing their services to clients (business). An example of the same can be Fiverr or Shutterstock.
However, providing feedback to organizations as per the product or service is also considered as one of the C2B. The reviews help them understand the positive and negative effects of the product on the consumer. An example of providing similar services like the feedback of an organization or a product is done by GoodFirms.co Here you can easily find reliable reviews provided by the organizations on the services provided by various C2B firms.
5. Business-to-Administration (B2A)
Business-to-Administration works with the government and therefore is also known as Business to Government. Organizations work with government agencies and exchange confidential information manually instead of using the web. Although E-commerce in the B2A sector functions to market products on the public as well as market it on the government measures. The action helps to provide an opportunity to put out your products and services out in the open for government projects like auctions, tenders, submission, etc.
Organizations prefer using web platforms to trade daily as better opportunities are rising with a change in time. E-commerce has made it easy for consumers and firms to connect and find products easily as per their needs. It has also made easy for companies to interact with the consumer directly and develop products or services as per their requirement. Therefore a boost in E-commerce has been noticed by earning a profit of US$ 38.5 billion in 2018-2019.