E - Business or E-Commerce
E-commerce (usually referred to by the more encompassing term 'e-business') is few suppliers? defined by IBM's Lou Gestner as being about: Vertically integrated or virtual organisation?
... cycle time, speed globalisation, increased productivity, reaching new customers and sharing knowledge across institutions for competitive advantage ...
The following table gives definitions referring to the electronic transactions and the direction of those transactions:
Electronic transaction
B2B - business to business
(1) used by MRP and ERP systems in communicating to/from suppliers. The transfer of data may include:
- Drawings from CAD systems, technical specifications
- Customer histories, customer order information;
- Competitor information; benchmarking information
- Inventory information
- Costing information/ credit/invoicing data
(2) The creation of forums where businesses and suppliers for a particular business segment can communicate directly both in the posting of orders and the sharing of information related to their industry, for example steel wholesaling in the US.
B2C - business to customer
E-commerce transactions such as online catalogues (QVC) or banking information where the customer is an individual
C2C - consumer to consumer
transaction directly between consumers such as classified ads or auction sites
C2B - consumer to business
Individuals sell directly to businesses. This may be in the form of goods or services.