By: Alan Smith
Submitted: 2011-04-04 00:32:48 | Word Count: 487
E-commerce means electronic commerce and also referred to as E- marketing or Electronic marketing. When the product or services are bought or sold through electronic media it is called e-commerce. Here the electronic media involves not only the conventional electronic media but also the internet.
In the earlier years when the application of electronics was in its infancy, the electronic media was mainly used for data interchange and transfer of funds. With the introduction of automated teller and the credit card the applications of electronic media evolved further. After this came the invasion of the internet and World Wide Web. Soon the electronic media along with the internet started being used for buying and selling of products and services. This was when the terminology "e-commerce" was coined and started being used.
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There are different types of interactions in the virtual world of internet. When we consider the business and customer to be the prime elements of interaction, there are four types of combinations.
Business to Customer (B2C): As the terminology speaks for itself, this is an interaction in which the customer buyer products put for sale by the business on the website. The website can offer products or services such as garments, mobiles, watches, repair services and reservation of train berth or plane. EBay is one of the most popular B2C websites.
Business to Business (B2B): It is obvious from the terminology that this pertains to interaction between two businesses. The products or services of one business are the raw material for another business. In the conventional business management scenario this is called Industrial marketing.
Consumer to Consumer (C2C): This interaction is between consumers and consumers only. An auction site where a consumer put for sale a product that was earlier bought by him/her is classified in the C2C website.
Consumer to business (C2B): This is an interaction between the consumer and the business in which the consumer is dependent on the services or/and products being offered by the business. The best example of this sort of interaction is the automatic teller machine.
Effects of the Ecommerce websites :
The ecommerce websites are bringing the buyer and seller as close as possible. This removes the need of any mediator. The expenses of the mediator need not be borne by the buyer. The Ecommerce website directly affects the costing on the buyer's side as well as the seller's side.
Nowadays the customers want to buy the products and/or services through the website and also want to pay the bills through the website. In these sorts of situations there are a number of software applications available in the market. Some of the famous software applications are "add to cart" and mode of paying the bills like the credit card.
