E-commerce Types for Dummies: All you Need to Know about B2B, B2C and other Abbs

Globalization and the use of IT technologies affect how organizations conduct their business and what methods they use. IT technologies have, in one way or another, become an integral part of those organizations that have invested in them the budget to activate business growth and company scale. For digital users for business purposes, the interest and attachment to e-commerce to complete transactions is only growing.

For many companies, it has now become much more realistic to associate themselves with the term just-in-time production. In the EU, e-commerce is a communication tool, which is the provision of services, the sale and purchase of products and things online, through a telephone connection. Also for processes related to business, the ability to conduct corporate transactions and automate workflows.

In the service sector, e-commerce helps to reduce the cost of services and at the same time increase the speed of their provision and their efficiency. It is easy to distribute information about a product or service, making it accessible to buyers and users. Large companies mainly carry out their operations online, as well as purchases, as some enterprises do not have the infrastructure.

What Makes E-commerce Work So Good?

The Internet: thanks to it, e-commerce has grown and become available to a person in any corner of the world. Literally, everyone is a user of a mobile phone and the Internet – now these are not only sources of information, but also a means for employees of various industries to make purchases, communicate, and order services. By using digital technologies to make a purchase, a person contributes to a cleaner environment and speeds up the chain of communication and delivery of his order. The economy over the past 15 years has evolved thanks to e-commerce, as technological advances have already given rise to users since the 1980s. The speed of the development of the Internet has surpassed any other medium that existed.

Payment Gateway

This is the main tool for e-commerce. With it, buyers and sellers make transactions using a credit card of any currency. There are enough payment methods on the Internet: debit or credit cards, transfers, electronic wallets, and so on. Thanks to e-commerce, the world is slowly moving from cash to digital currency – the currency of the future.

Analytics

With the help of it, data enters a digital intellectual base in order to make further decisions based on them. Organizations, using the analytics of their customers, search for information, group it, analyze it, and then comment on it. There is a direct relationship between the growth in the amount of data and the need to conduct research into the study of people who use their services or make purchases. For example, merchants can calculate digital ROI online by having access to real-time knowledge. E-commerce users use analytics to determine a customer’s required order quantity and conversion rate.

Social Networks

For a long time it has been not only a place for communication, but also a platform for advertising. Blogs, apps, mailing lists, banners and posters help all forms of e-commerce grow by bringing people together and spreading information among them. Social networks direct the client to the desired service and remind them about it in order to maintain interest. With their help, it is easy to build a brand and get an audience grouped by interests.

Different E-commerce Types

Of course, there are two main types of e-commerce that are most frequently mentioned everywhere. Still, it is better to consider more types to better understand the difference.

Business-to-Business (B2B): this means that all products and any services take place between two business entities – firms, companies, enterprises. The most standard example: wholesale companies in the field of industry or manufacturers of goods and services for business.

Business-to-consumer (B2C): This involves companies and consumers. B2B business models are a way of conducting a partnership of
different types: both simpler and complex with interruptions. Thanks to the Internet,, this type has become very famous and used, since any product or service is available to the consumer without getting up from the couch.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C): This covers the sale and purchase of goods and services between customers in an electronic format. Typically, buying and selling is done by a third party that provides a platform for online transactions.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B): This is a reverse e-commerce type that is the opposite of conventional commerce. Often C2B can be found in companies that are engaged in crowdsourcing. Individuals can sell their services and products to highly specialized companies. For example, a company needs a logo – they order several options and choose one and buy. In this business segment, there are exchanges of photos and other media elements.

Business Administration (B2A): Any online transaction between government and companies. These are well-known processes: taxation, health care operations, social assistance, business reports, legal documentation, and so on.

Consumer to Administration (C2A): This business segment means buying between the government and the individual. First of all, this means education – online learning, information dissemination, and the like. This includes taxes, payments, and filing tax returns. Do not forget about the health sector: payment for services in the field of medicine, obtaining information about diseases. Let’s consider the pros and cons of e-commerce for businesses to understand this issue better.

Pros of E-commerce

It can be assumed that the main thing for the consumer in e-commerce is that he saves time and energy because he can order from anywhere in the world and receive it anywhere on the globe. The benefits of e-commerce include:

• Low rates for people entering the stock exchange.
• Consumers can make purchases regardless of the time of day and without contacting the seller’s company.
• Saving time, the buyer can place an order in a few clicks and pay for it with delivery.
• Access to a large amount of information, which allows you to study the market and make the right choice.
• Being at home, the buyer makes purchases of goods and services in complete comfort, which improves the quality of shopping.
• It is easy to change the seller company in case the perfect purchase was not good enough.
• There is a high probability of finding the right product in stock, as the user has a wider selection on the Internet.
• The ability to view and comment on a product or service, provides an opportunity to obtain independent information before making a final purchase.

Merchants benefiting from e-commerce experience increased sales and lower operating costs. Among the environmental benefits:

• Increases income.
• Reduces maintenance and operating costs.
• Causes increased customer loyalty and retention, the conclusion of trusting long-term relationships.
• Saving money on transportation and transportation of the company’s products.
• More fluidity and less stress in the relationship between the service provider and client.
• Accelerating the process of selling products to customers.
• Communication is improving inside and outside the company too.
• It is easier to promote and popularise the brand.

E-commerce is no exception and it is also possible to face problems in it. Most often when using the Internet by sellers and also by buyers as a medium for doing business. The following are possible issues you may encounter:

• Private and public companies grow separately from e-commerce, but their collaboration with digital technologies is necessary to accelerate the process and increase the potential scale of growth. This will increase the e-commerce industry exponentially.
• There are cases when there is no system that would protect and ensure reliability, fulfil special requirements and support communication protocols. For example, if the website where the buyer made the purchase is hacked, then he will lose his money and the company all the way down to income. This is one of the most common e-commerce cybersecurity issues.
• All sorts of banks and financial organisations are not actively taken to support these types of e-commerce business. Otherwise, it would make it possible to expand and popularise e-commerce, as it would prevent possible losses, reduce theft and fraud with credit cards. But that would put the banks at risk.

Surprisingly, in some countries, purchases are made through bargaining to this day, so this culture can create certain problems in the field of e-commerce.

It is difficult and very important to maintain confidence in the calculations carried out on the Internet. Issuance of electronic invoices is the basic documentation of laws and regulations, which ensure the legitimacy of online transactions. In today’s world, this is the kind of trust that you can count on, even electronically, but everything must take place in accordance with the law and, accordingly, the judicial system. Despite the perfection and convenience of online transactions, cash settlement is still a fairly common way to trade.

The transaction procedure of today must include the use of new instruments and new legal service providers – by law, consents and permissions must be obtained for any process of buying or selling. In today’s realities, it is important to mention the difference between a signature in one’s own hand and an electronic one.If you are in the search of a reliable and cutting edge payment service provider, learn more about PayDo. It is easy to manage your business and personal accounts online and control your fands.  Read more now.