Easy Tips That Explain How E Commerce Works

Posted by: claynekeegan on February 2, 2012 Under: Ecommerce |

Explaining how e commerce works is rather simple. The exchange of goods and / or services over the internet is known as E commerce.

You participate in e commerce, when you make purchases on eBay, Amazon.com or any online store. You also participate in e commerce by downloading music from sites like Napster or iTunes. To begin with, let’s take a look at the different types of e commerce to help you understand it better.

B2B: B2B or business-to-business e commerce is the oldest form of e commerce. Electronic sharing and transfer of files and information was started by banks and other businesses way back in the 1960s. It was still limited, because there was not one standard way of conducting this business, so not all businesses could successfully transfer with each other. The 80s was when B2B e commerce really took off with the setting up of a reliable standard which made it possible for all to use the same method and hence exchange files much more easily.

C2C: Consumer-to-consumer or C2C is one of the well known forms of e commerce today. You are a participant of consumer to consumer e commerce if you have ever purchased anything online from a person instead of a business. This can be through an online ad posting, an electronic bulletin, or an online auction. By far, the most popular form of consumer-to-consumer e commerce is in the form of online auctions, through the mammoth eBay auction site, where anyone can put goods online for sale to the highest bidder.

P2P: P2P or peer-to-peer e commerce was initiated by Napster which enabled users to share files free of cost. Today you can find many similar websites and file-sharing programs and systems online.

B2C: Majority of e commerce transactions take place from business-to-consumer without the mention of which, the working of e commerce cannot be explained. 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. Simple concepts can be used to explain how e commerce works in your favor. If you wish to purchase a book, for example, it is not too hard to locate numerous online bookstores and use them to compare its prices to determine the lowest one. You can check the cost of shipping the book, and their shipping times, and determine which store can get it to you the quickest, for the lowest price.

All without having to stand in line, fight crowds, or spend any money for transportation or gas. So when you consider that you can comparison shop this way for small items and large alike, it’s easy to see the advantages 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.