E Commerce is a very broad term. What initially started as Commerce between a business and end consumer initially on internet now has encompassed multiple branches and diversifications.
E Commerce refers to selling/buying goods either electronically (they are available as downloads) or physically (they are shipped in boxes) . It can also mean transfer of money from services such as IT services, BPO solutions, legal and even CV preparation.
Initially, most of the E Commerce used to be performed through desktops while in new age, E Commerce is conducted on desktop, TV, laptops and most importantly on mobile devices.
Let us have a look at various types of E Commerce types that currently exist in the world.
Business To Consumers
Business to consumers is inarguably the most known type of E Commerce business. Dell computers for example, sells its configurable computers online. The customer just needs to customize and place the order and make payment, everything online. Then the computer is shipped to the home.
Another great example is Amazon. Amazon is one of the largest E commerce companies with millions of products and customers as well.
But there are millions of small other companies and businesses running their business online often in competition to the giants. The companies sell niche products.
In case of service Industry, one can think of companies such as Fiverr, Upwork, and many online education platform which provide services and not products as their main offering. The customer pays a subscription and in return they are provided with the services related to their needs.
There are some businesses that outsource part of their business to vendors while they focus on taking orders. Such example of drop shipping, T shirt and Mug printing services fall under this category.
Business To Business
Commerce just does not happen between consumer and businesses. It can also happen between two businesses. A truck company for example can entertain applications for electric component manufacturing, online instead of offline. Even the process of bidding for the tender may happen online.
Then there are bulk buyers, which supply other companies with the required raw materials. Things such as inventory level replacement, shipping dates, payments can be integrated within the two companies leading to smooth E Commerce transactions.
Even for services, a business can buy online from the B2B arm of a company while the company also serves B2C customers. An example is Stock photography companies. While the individual customer needs only one or two images at a time, a business can make multiple image purchases from the stock photography companies.
Consumer to Consumer
In this type of E Commerce, the consumers talk to each other, buy and sell using a company providing listing services. The payment is handled mostly by the consumers themselves. Companies such eBay and Etsy allow consumers to directly buy from other sellers on the platform. The company providing the services thus generally neither produces anything, nor ships anything to customers. It is left to the sellers and buyers to agree on the price and terms of shipping. The intermediatory though takes a cut of sales value or charges a fee for providing extra details such as phone number or email id of the buyers/sellers.
Direct To Consumer
If a company not just lists its own products but also sells it online on its own website, it is supposed to have performed the Direct To Consumer sale. It is different than Business to Consumer that here the manufacturer is directly selling products or services and is often providing even service guarantees. The manufacturer can also list products on other B2C sites such as Amazon to increase the reach but often will give you the best price and guarantees if you purchase things from their own website.
Examples are electronic consumer good companies that manufacture and sells them through their own websites. They typically cut the middlemen and often have enough flexibility to manage the customer service requests, complaints too.
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk
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