There are many ways to classify electronic commerce transaction, one is by looking at the nature of the participants. the three major electronic commerce categories are business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce.
Another way of classifying electronic commerce transaction is in term of the platforms used by participants in a transaction. Most E-commerce transaction took place using a personal computer connect to internet over wired network.
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) is electronic commerce involves retailing products and services to individual shoppers. Business or transactions conducted directly between a company and consumers who are the end-users of its products or services
For example, someone buying a television set from an electronics retailer would be a B2C transaction. The transaction preceding this, eg, the purchase of components, screens, plastics etc. by the manufacturer, and the sale of the set from the manufacturer to the retailer would be B2B transactions.
Many B2C transactions now take place online, eg, the
purchase of books from amazon.co.uk, CDs/DVDs from play.com, or even doing the
weekly shopping online at Tesco.