E Commerce working made easy

Posted by: claynekeegan on February 1, 2012 Under: Ecommerce |

The working of e commerce can be explained without much difficulty. E commerce is simply the exchange of goods and/or services electronically.

When you buy anything from any online store such as eBay, Amazon.com, you automatically participate in e commerce. If you’ve ever downloaded music from a site like Napster or iTunes, that’s e commerce, too. First, lets discuss the different types of e commerce to help you understand it better.

B2B: B2B or business-to-business was the first form of e commerce that was brought into existence. Back in the 1960s, banks and other businesses began sharing and transferring files and information electronically. This sharing of files and information could not expand, since there wasn’t one specific standard for conducting this business. Hence some businesses were unsuccessful in transferring with each other. B2B e commerce really got going in the 80s with the application of reliable standardization that was universally accepted facilitating easy exchange of files.

C2C: Consumer-to-consumer or C2C has gained popularity with the masses and is widely used by many today. Purchasing anything online from another person via an ad posting on an electronic board or an online auction, instead of a business makes you a participant of consumer to consumer e commerce. Online auctions are the most popular form of consumer-to-consumer e commerce till date eBay is a massive auction site which allows anyone to put their goods online for sale to the highest bidder.

P2P: P2P or peer-to-peer e commerce started with Napster, where users shared files for free. Today you can find many similar websites and file-sharing programs and systems online.

B2C: We can’t explain how e commerce works without mentioning the huge amount of e commerce that takes places from business-to-consumer. When anyone purchases anything, whether it’s a download of something electronic or any item that must be shipped to the buyer, at an online store or website, that’s e commerce. Working of e commerce can be easily explained if you keep in mind the following things.

E commerce comprises of one or more of the following, all of which are transactions that are conducted online: Information exchange or Money transfers or Goods/Services exchange. The concepts used to explain how e commerce works in your favor are straightforward. If you want to purchase a book, for instance, you can find several online bookstores and compare the prices of that book to find the lowest one. The cost of shipping the book and the shipping time are some of the factors that you should consider before selecting a store which can send you the book in the shortest possible time and at the lowest price.

This can be accomplished without standing in a queue, fighting a crowd, or spending money on travel. The fact that you can compare and shop for small as well as large items is just one of the advantages that e commerce offers you. There is no doubt that we can explain the benefits of e commerce, but you will see its advantages yourself once you have actually purchased an item this way.