Types of E-commerce
Major categories of e-commerce by participants.
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Major types of e-commerce
B2C, B2B, and C2C are the principal types of e-commerce; mobile, social, and local e-commerce are subsets.
B2C
- Business sells to individual consumers
- Retail goods, travel, online content
- Examples: Amazon, Flipkart
- Fast-growing; most visible to consumers
B2B
- Business sells to other businesses
- Largest form of e-commerce
- Net marketplaces, private industrial networks
- Examples: Amazon Business, Elemica
C2C
- Consumers sell to other consumers
- Helped by an online market maker
- Examples: eBay, Etsy, Craigslist
- On-demand: Uber, Airbnb
E-commerce has three principal types by market relationship: B2C (business-to-consumer, e.g., Amazon), B2B (business-to-business, the largest form, e.g., Amazon Business), and C2C (consumer-to-consumer, with a platform provider like eBay or Etsy). Mobile, social, and local e-commerce are subsets that cut across these categories.
Explanation: E-commerce has three principal types by market relationship: B2C (business-to-consumer, e.g., Amazon), B2B (business-to-business, the largest form, e.g., Amazon Business), and C2C (consumer-to-consumer, with a platform provider like eBay or Etsy). Mobile, social, and local e-commerce are subsets that cut across these categories.