There are different types of e-commerce and we need to know what e-commerce is and how different it is from e-business. E-commerce is used for business transactions through the internet medium while e-business involves one or more organizations making and individuals making commercial transactions through a digital medium.
There are different types of e-commerce and we need to know what e-commerce is and how different it is from e-business. E-commerce is used for business transactions through the internet medium while e-business involves one or more organizations making and individuals making commercial transactions through a digital medium.
Know the Different Types of E-Commerce
There are different types of e-commerce and we need to know what e-commerce is and how different it is from e-business. E-commerce is used for business transactions through the internet medium while e-business involves one or more organizations making and individuals making commercial transactions through a digital medium. So when you want to start anything do with e-commerce, make sure you have followed the right methods to step up your business.
You can classify e-commerce into five main categories.
1) Business to Consumer (B2C) – The B2C model is one of the widely used tools in the e-commerce industry. The pattern is very simple and easy. The marketers sell their products to the retailers who in turn sell them to the consumers. The B2C which was started around 15 years back wasn’t looked upon as a very efficient system for boosting commercial sales, but over a period of time the popularity and efficiency has been recognized by most business merchants and it has also been looked upon as time and cost saving factor.
2) Business to Business (B2B) – B2B is one of the high level businesses involving heavy capital and transactions worth trillions of dollars. Under this form of e-commerce the buying and selling takes place only between two businesses without the involvement of the consumer. The end product is purchased by one business from another and then sold to the consumer under their brand name. A watch manufacturing company might just purchase accessories from a manufacturer and sell them under her name. Major companies which already have a global name purchase manufactured products and then sell them to the retailers under their brand name.
3) Consumer to Consumer (C2C) – The C2C format is a very simple transaction which takes place between two consumers. There many online sites which have made such transactions easy and possible. Consumers can directly make a purchase on any online site and have the product shipped directly to another consumer.
4) Peer to Peer (P2P) – This is a very efficient medium of e-commerce which allows to share vital information. The consumers or businesses can send across different kinds of files and information which can be downloaded immediately and made use of. This doesn’t generate much revenue as there is a lot of piracy taking place due to the invention of P2P clients. People illegally share music files and movies by uploading them on the websites which gets easily accessible to all clients using the different torrents. The one sharing the file and the one receiving it, both have to install this torrent and get connected to each other.
5) m-Commerce – this is a very effective way of transferring information or even conducting business transactions. Almost every application is available for download on the mobile phone today. Even banks offer mobile banking facilities, while you can even do stock trading and booking of airline and railway tickets. M-commerce has become a major source for revenue generation for many organizations today. The internet is easily accessible on the mobile phone which makes it all the more easy for the businessmen and consumers to contact each other even when they are on the move and not gaining any access to the computer. Mobile generation has revolutionized e-commerce completely to a whole dimension of trade and commerce.
E-commerce is evolving to new levels everyday as per the needs of the businesses and consumers. Transcending time and space to reach out to the global audience with just one click is definitely something commendable and e-commerce experts have done that by making the world a smaller place. E-commerce has transported the real world into virtual.