Electronic commerce is the buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the Internet.

It covers different types of businesses, from consumer-based retail sites, through auction or music sites, to commercial exchanges of goods and services between corporations.

There are five types of electronic commerce:

B2B

B2B stands for Business to Business. B2B e-commerce is the most cost-effective way for sellers to reach buyers around the world.

Benefits of b2b websites:

– Promote your businesses online.
– Import and export of products.
– Find buyers and suppliers.
– Post-trade leads.

B2C

B2C stands for Business to Consumer. It is direct trade between companies and final consumers. This is direct selling over the Internet. For example: sell products directly to the customer and anyone can buy any product from the supplier’s website.

The main difference between B2B and B2C supply chains is that the customers are different. B2B supply chains deal directly with other businesses, while B2C supply chains generally deal directly with the customer. Technology has really played a major role in changing the supply chain from B2B to B2C.

B2E

B2E stands for Business to Employee. B2E is often used to refer to the B2E portal, which is the company intranet personalized for each employee.

C2C

C2C stands for Consumer to Consumer. The common example of C2C is online auction where consumers post items for sale and other consumers bid to buy them.

C2B

C2B stands for Consumer to Business. C2B allows customers to pay virtually any type of bill they may have online from their homes.