B2B & B2C & C2C

Business-to-Business
     Business-to-business (B2B) describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as
between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. Contrasting
terms are business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-government (B2G).

      The volume of B2B transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary
reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving
subcomponent or raw materials, and only one B2C transaction, specifically sale of the finished
product to the end customer. For example, an automobile manufacturer makes several B2B
transactions such as buying tires, glass for windscreens, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The
final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to the consumer, is a single (B2C) transaction.

      Etymology
      The term "business-to-business" was originally coined to describe the electronic communications
between businesses or enterprises in order to distinguish it from the communications between
businesses and consumers (B2C). It eventually came to be used in marketing as well, initially
describing only industrial or capital goods marketing. Today it is widely used to describe all
products and services used by enterprises. Many professional institutions and the trade
publications focus much more on B2C than B2B, although most sales and marketing personnel is in
the B2B sector.

Business-to-Consumer
      Business-to-consumer (B2C, sometimes also called Business-to-Customer) describes activities of
businesses serving end consumers with products and/or services.
      An example of a B2C transaction would be a person buying a pair of shoes from a retailer. The
transactions that led to the shoes being available for purchase, that is the purchase of the
leather, laces, rubber, etc. as well as the sale of the shoe from the shoemaker to the retailer
would be considered (B2B) transactions.

Consumer-to-Consumer
     Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) (or citizen-to-citizen) electronic commerce involves the
electronically-facilitated transactions between consumers through some third party. A common
example is the online auction, in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers
bid to purchase it; the third party generally charges a flat fee or commission. The sites are
only intermediaries, just there to match consumers. They do not have to check quality of the
products being offered.

 

Examples of C2C
1.eBay
2.Craigslist
3.Amazon.com

     This type of e-commerce is expected to increase in the future because it cuts out the costs of
using another company. An example on cited in Management Information Systems, is for someone
having a garage sale to promote their sale via advertising transmitted to the GPS units of cars
in the area. This would potentially reach a larger audience than just posting signs around the
neighborhood.
4.Universities 
    C2C are becoming more popular amongst students in universities because these are large
communities in the same geographical region that are low on money. So they are looking for deals
very often and these kinds of websites offer this. Universities themselves set up places for
students to sell textbooks and other stuff to other students, you can even advertise that you
are subletting your apartment. An example of this from above is Tiger books and Dalhousie
University Classifieds, both of these are put together by the school itself for the students.