Answers:
Business to Consumer (B2C)
According to Bidgoli (2002) conducting business in consumer e-commerce involves five main activities:
Information sharing: To share information with customers, a business to consumer e-commerce model can use company website, online catalogue, e-mail, online advertisements, message board system, newsgroups and discussion groups.
Ordering: To order a product or service, a consumer can use electronic forms which are similar to paper forms or they can even write an e-mail.
Payment: For paying for the product which they have ordered they can use credit cards and electronic cheques, and they can even pay the amount in the form of cash.
Fulfilment: Fulfilment means delivering of the product or service from retailer to consumer. This function could be very complex depending upon the products which have to be delivered. These products may be books, videos, CDs, software, music systems, and electronic equipments and so on.
Service and support: This is very much important in e-commerce, as there is no human interaction in the sales transactions. Examples of these include e-mail confirmation, periodic news flash, online surveys, help desks, guaranteed secure transactions and guaranteed online auctions. For a B2C e-business to be successful, all these five activities have to be used together.
Business to Business (B2B)
Business to business (B2B) describes transactions between businesses, such as between two organisations or between a manufacturer and wholesalers.
Internet-based business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce is carried out through industry-sponsored marketplaces and through private exchanges, and these are conducted by large companies. Often, companies also sell their products to business customers through their own web sites.
During the early 2000, industry-sponsored marketplaces accounted for a small percentage of business to business transactions. According to the survey of 25 industry sponsored marketplaces (ISMs), the main reason behind this was that industry sponsored marketplaces have had problems in approaching buyers and sellers to use them. Most of the companies do not want to get customized designs through marketplaces as they don't want to expose proprietary information on a site that is shared by competitors.
Business-to-business e-commerce differs from business-to-consumer ecommerce in many ways. Business to consumer merchants sell on a first come, first-served basis, most business-to-business transactions are done through negotiated contracts that allow the seller to think and plan for how much the buyer is likely to purchase. In most of the cases, business to business is not a matter of making money as it is a matter of making connections with business partners.