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Types or Examples of E-business

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There are fundamentally only 6 types of e-businesses that we are going to look at in this article in broad so that you can have a good understanding of each of them. They include;

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  1. Business-to-business or B2B e-business: this is a kind of business that encompasses of all the electronic transactions of both goods and services that are conducted only between companies. It can also be defined as the selling of services and products between businesses through the internet through an online sales portal. A further understanding is that, it is the kind of business that involves companies that are using the internet to conduct transactions with one another. Most of the producers and the traditional business wholesalers characteristically work with this kind of e-business. This has the advantage of being able to greatly improve on the efficiency between different companies because instead of orders being processed manually like through mail or telephone, it will instead be processed digitally. According to the U.S Census Bureau, this kind of business accounts for up to more than 90% of all the electronic commerce due to its complexity in transactions.  This is because in the business to consumer business, the sellers offer the products and the services while the buyers buy them but in the business to business transactions, there are many-sided transactions in which there are multiple transactions involved at each of the steps of the supply chain. One thing you should know about the business to business e-business is that they generate their revenue from the direct sales.

 

      CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS TO BUSINESS E-BUSINESS

  • Complex ordering processes
  • Elaborate back-end systems.
  • large collections of attributes
  • Long lasting relationship between customer and manufacturer
  • Decision Making Unit
  • Reoccurring purchases
  • Payment on credit sales
  • Buying as part of the job
  • Smart shipments (i.e. truckloads)
  • Customer specific prices

 

  1. Business-to-consumer or B2C: another very common type of e-business is through business to consumer business which is basically the kind of e-business in which there is an establishment of an electronic business relationship that is among the businesses and the final consumers. It can also be described at the kind that involves the transactions that are conducted directly among a company and the consumers who are the end-users of the services or goods. This kind of business matches with the retail section of the e-business whereby the traditional retail trade usually operates. This kind of relation as compared to the business to business is actually much easier and a lot more dynamic but also more irregular or discontinued. Over the years, this kind of business had greatly developed because of the advent of the web and there are also very many virtual stores and malls over the internet that are selling different kinds of consumer goods like software, computers, books, food, digital publication and so much more. Another thing about this kind of business is that it is a very unique business model in which the consumer is able to create value and even demand for the products. You will find things like the reverse auctions which are very popular characteristic of this model in which the consumers are able to drive the transactions and then after offer their own prices for the products. A good example of this kind of e-business is the airline ticket website Priceline.com because they let the customers bid for tickets and then after offer their own prices.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER E-BUSINESS

  • Single buyer
  • Low frequency purchases
  • Focuses on direct selling and marketing
  • Effective for smaller companies
  • Stocks (for as soon as possible shipments)
  • Makes more profits
  • Fixed consumer prices
  • Simple ordering processes
  • Single visits
  • consumer

 

 

  1. Consumer-to-consumer or C2C e-business: this is the kind of e-business model that allows the consumers to act as the buyers and the sellers in the third party facilitated online marketplace. Another way I can best describe it is through saying that it is an electronic type of commerce that involves the electronically facilitated transactions among a consumer through some third party. A popular example I can think of here is the Craigslist which is a third-party marketplace. What the company does is that it brings together the disparate sellers and buyers so as to conduct business. Another example of a website that deals in such kind of business is the eBay as well as PayPal. What most of these websites were able to do is contain both a streamlined and globalized traditional person to person trading that is usually conducted through forms like collectibles shows, garage sales, flea markets and so much more while making use of their web interface. This is very important because it simplifies easy exploration for the buyers and then it also allows the sellers to instantly list an item for sale within a few minutes of registering.  A consumer to consumer e-business is able to generate revenues in a number of ways like through the membership and subscription fees, personal ad fees, sales commission and the transaction fees.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CONSUMER-TO-CONSUMER E-BUSINESS

  • Direct consumer to consumer interaction
  • Lower costs
  • Higher costs profits for buyers and sellers
  • Lesser middlemen involved

 

 

  1. Consumer-to-business or C2B e-business: this is the kind of business model whereby the consumers or the individuals create the value and the businesses consume that value created. It can also be described as a kind of e-business in which a consumer can offer products and services to the companies and then the companies pay the consumers. Finally this model is also known as the reverse auction or demand collection model that enables the buyers to name their own price which in most cases is binding for a particular good or service. This type of business is a total opposite of the traditional business model in which the companies are the ones that offer the goods and the services to the consumer. An example is when a consumer writes a review or even when the consumer provides a useful idea for a new product development then that particular customer is creating value for business and if luckily that business adopts the input.  For the case of a website, it will be able to collect the demand bids and then after provide the bids to the sellers that are participating. Another way in which the consumer-to-business model comes to practice is like in blogs or just the internet forums whereby the author provides a link back to an online business in that way facilitating the purchase of the produce like for instance a book that is sold on Amazon.com. This way the author may then obtain affiliate revenues from the triumphant sale. This kind of e-business model is also very popular in crowd-sourcing based projects in which a great number of individuals let their products and services available for the purchase for the businesses that are searching for exactly these kinds of products or services. Some other popular kind of platform in this kind of business is the iStockphoto whereby customers sell royalty free photographs, media, and images and so on.

 

  1. Business-to-administration or B2A e-business: this is also best known as Business-to-Government or B2G and it basically refers to the communication and business relations that is in existence between enterprises and authorities as opposed to the communication relations that is there with other companies. We can also describe it as the part of e-business that encompasses all the transactions that are conducted online among the companies and the public administration. It is basically that part that engages a great amount and a variety of services mainly in the areas like employment, social security, fiscal, legal documents and registers and so much more. These kinds of services were not that many in the past but over the recent years, they have increased considerably with investments made in the e-government. Another growing important factor is the Public Private Partnership or PPP like for instance the cooperation as well as the private outsourcing in the areas of the public tasks. You will find terms like e-administration under this which is a business process that is classified particularly in the connection with the support of the business process through the means of an administrative electronic way of communication. Today, this kind of Business-to-Administration is becoming very important especially in the category of marketing in which a special marketing measure is applied to the customers in this area. Like for instance on the basis of the budget-based financing that is in the public procurement as well as awarding.

 

  1. Consumer-to-administration or C2A e-business: this is finally the last type or example of e-business that is there. It is the kind of e-business model that encompasses of all the electronic transactions that are conducted between the individuals as well as the public administration. It can also be simply defined as the relationship that is between a client and the administrations of the government. In this kind of relationship, the citizen is allowed to make reports to the offices of the state so as to implement very relevant as well as necessary matters electronically. Some of the examples that can be associated with this kind of model include the submission of an application for an identity card, passport, implementation of payments, announcing tenders, providing tax return through either sending an email or using the website, health like appointments, payment of health services, information about illness etc, education like disseminating information, distance learning etc and so much more.

 

Conclusion: the 6 types of the e-businesses that we have just looked at are the only ones that are known but with the first 4 types in that order being the most popular ones as compared to the last two types. Different types of e-businesses have been involved either directly or indirectly to one form or the other. So in this growing era where technology is greatly dominating every aspect from education, communication, health, businesses and so forth, it is very important not to get left behind. This is because when you look at the benefits of e-businesses compared to the traditional ones, you will realize that the benefits of e-business overweight the traditional ones a lot from being less costly, no boundaries and so much more.

References:

Vanilla Farmer, Amazon Retailer & Tech Researcher. Yosaki is my personal blog but I'm working on some big tech project back doors. I will keep on posting various topics on things I have knowledge about.

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