E Business Transactions

1.1 Business to Consumer (B2C)

In B2C e-commerce, businesses sell directly to consumers. Business to Consumer activity usually exists online and offline but the acronym B2C has primarily been used to describe the online variety.

B2C businesses played a large role in the rapid development of the commercial Internet in the 1990s. Large sums of venture capital flowed to consumers in the form of free online services and discounted shopping, spurring adoption of the new medium.

Amazon is a very good example of B2C e-commerce as they sell groups of products and services to their customers, including books, DVDs and games. Currently Amazon holds the top spot in the UK entertainment market with 21.4% of the market, beating the likes of HMV and Tesco. Amazon has strengthened its market share by 3.2% over the past couple of months due to the strong growth in eBook sales and digital music. (4)

In addition to pure B2C e-commerce players such as Amazon, other traditional businesses have entered the internet marketplace. Stores such as River Island and Next are now actively embracing B2C e-commerce by offering products and services through electronic channels alongside their retail stores.

Many believe that in the long term, these types of businesses will be more successful than pure e-commerce businesses. Some of the advantages of these e-commerce sites and companies include availability of physical space (customers can physically visit the store), availability of returns (customers can return a purchased item to the retail store), and availability of customer service in these retail stores.

1.2 Business to Business (B2B)

Business to business mainly refers to commerce transactions between the businesses. The examples of this can be between manufacturers and wholesalers or between retailers and wholesalers. The marketing done in B2B is through internet marketing services. There are similar activities carried out like B2C which is business to...