Classification of E-commerce by transaction partners

Following are the Classification of E-commerce by transaction partners.

i) Business-to-business (B2B)

Business-to-business (B2B) is the exchange of products, services or information between business entities. Web based B-to-B includes:

Direct selling and support to business: In which customers can by and also get technical support from the business.
E-procurement (also known as industry portals): Where a purchasing agent can shop for supplies from vendors, request proposals, and in some cases, bid to make a purchase at a desired price.
Information sites: It provides information about a particular industry for its companies and their employees. These include specialized search sites and trade and industry standards organization sites.

ii) Business-to-consumer (B2C)

The exchange of products, information or services between business and consumers in a retailing relationship. Some of the first examples of B-to-C e-commerce were amazon.com and dell.com in the USA and lastminutes.com in the UK. In this case, the 'c' represents either consumer or customer.

iii) Business-to-Government(B2G)

The exchange of information, services and products between business organizations and government agencies on-line. This may include.

E-procurement services: In which business learn about purchasing needs of agencies and provide services.
A virtual workplace: In which business and government agency could coordinate the work on a contracted project by collaborating on-line to coordinate on-line meetings, review plans and manage progress.
Rental of on-line application and databases: These are especially for use by government agencies.

iv) Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

In this category consumers interact directly with other consumers. They exchange information such as.

Expert knowledge: Where one person asks a question about anything and gets an e-mail reply from the community of other individuals, as in the case of the New York Times-affiliated abuzz.com website.
·Opinions: About companies and products, for example epinions.com

v) Government-to-Business (G2B)

The exchange of information, services and products between government agencies and business organizations. Government sites now enable the exchange between government and business of:

Information, guidance and advice for business on international trading, sources of funding and support, facilities.
A database of laws, regulations and government policy for industry sectors.
On-line application and submission of official forms.
On-line payment facilities.

This improves accuracy, increases speed and reduces costs, so businesses are given financial incentives to use electronic-form submission and payment facilities.

vi) Government-to-Consumer (G2C)

Government sites offering information, forms and facilities to conduct transactions of individuals, including paying bills and submitting official forms on-line such as tax returns.

vii) Government-to-Government (G2G)

Government-to-government transactions within countries linking local governments together and also international governments.