CLASSIFICATION OF EC BY THE NATURE OF THE TRANSACTION

A common classification of EC is by the nature of transaction or the relationship among participants. The following types of EC are commonly distinguished.

Business-to-Business (B2B). All of the participants in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce are business or other organizations. Today most EC is B2B.

Business-to-Consumer(B2C). Business-to-consumer (B2C) EC includes retail transactions from business to individual shoppers. The typical shopper at Amazon.com is a consumer, or customer. This type is also called e-tailing.

Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C). In business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) EC, a business provides some product or service to a client business. The client business maintains its own customers, to whom the product or service is provided. An example is Qantas' Pan-Pacific market cited earlier. The term B2B frequently is used to describe B2B2C as well.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B). This category includes individuals who use the Internet to sell products or services to organizations, as well as individuals who seek sellers to bid on products or services they need. Priceline.com is a well-known C2B organizer.

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C). In the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) category, consumers sell directly to other consumers. Examples include individuals selling residential property, cars, and so on in online classified ads. The advertisement of personal services over the Internet and the selling of knowledge and expertise online are other examples of C2C (e.g., guru.com). In addition, several auction sites allow individuals to place items up for auction. A special type of C2C is where people exchange music, videos, software, and other digitizable goods electronically using peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. A well-known organizer of P2P is Napster (napster.com). (As a result of legal challenges, Napster no longer offers free exchanges; in 2002 it tried offering only digital goods that people pay for.)

Mobile Commerce. E-Commerce transactions and activities conducted in a wireless environment are referred to as mobile commerce, or m-commerce. Such transactions targeted to individuals in specific locations, at specific times, are referred to as location-based commerce, or l-commerce.

Intrabusiness (organizational) EC. The intrabusiness EC category includes all internal organizational activities that involve the exchange of goods, services, or information among various units and individuals in that organization. Activities can range from selling corporate products to employees to online training and collaborative design efforts. Intrabusiness EC is usually performed on intranets or corporate portals (in general, gateways to the Web).

Business-to-employees (B2E). The business-to-employees (B2E) category is a subset of the intrabusiness category in which the organization delivers services, information, or products to individual employees, as Qantas Airways is doing with its College Online.
Collaborative Commerce. When individuals or groups communicate or collaborate online they may be engaged in collaborative commerce (c-commerce). For example, business partners in different locations may design a product together, using screen sharing, or they may jointly forecast market demand.

Nonbusiness EC. An increasing number of non business institutions such as academic institutions, not-for-profit organizations, religious organizations, social organizations, and government agencies are using EC to reduce their expenses or to improve their general operations and customer service. (Note that in the previous categories one can usually replace the word business with organization.)

E-Government: Government-to-citizens (G2C) and to others. In e-government EC, a government entity buys or provides goods, service, or information to businesses or individual citizens.

Exchange-to-exchange (E2E). An exchange describes a public electronic market with many buyers and sellers. As these proliferate, it is logical for exchanges to connect to one another. Exchange-to-exchange (E2E) EC is a formal system that connect exchanges.