E-commerce connections between participants

A common classification of EC is by the type of the transactions and the transacting members. The major types of EC transactions are listed below.

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Business-to-business (B2B) EC refers to transactions between and among organizations. Today, about 85% of EC volume is B2B. For Dell, the entire wholesale transaction is B2B. Dell buys most of its parts through e-commerce, and sells its products to businesses (B2B) and individuals (B2C) using e-commerce.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

Business-to-consumer (B2C) EC includes retail transactions of products or services from businesses to individual shoppers. The typical shopper at Amazon.com is of this type. Since the sellers are usually retailers, we also call this type e-tailing.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

In consumer-to-business (C2B), people use the Internet to sell products or services to individuals and organizations. Alternatively, individuals use C2B to bid on products or services. Priceline.com is a well-known organizer of C2B travel service transactions.

Intrabusiness EC

The intrabusiness EC category refers to EC transactions among various organizational departments and individuals in one company.

Business-to-Employees (B2E)

The business-to-employees (B2E) category refers to the delivery of services, information, or products from organizations to their employees. A major category of employees is mobile employees, such as field representatives or repair employees that go on to customers. EC support to such employees is also called business-to-mobile employees (B2ME).

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

In the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) EC category individual consumers sell to or buy from other consumers. Examples of C2C include individuals selling computers, musical instruments, or personal services online. EBay sales and auctions are mostly C2C as are the ads in Craigslist.

Collaborative Commerce

Collaborative commerce (c-commerce) refers to online activities and communications done by parties working to attain the same goal. For example, business partners may design a new product together.

E-Government

In e-government EC, a government agency buys or provides goods, services, or information from or to businesses (G2B) or from or to individual citizens (G2C). Governments can deal also with other governments (G2G).