Ecommerce (Electronic Commerce) – What is E-commerce?

E-commerce or electronic commerce is the name given to  platforms to carry out sales and purchases of products, services or goods over the Internet.

Índice

  1. Popularity of E-commerce
  2. Types of E-commerce
  3. Advantages of electronic commerce compared to traditional commerce
  4. E-commerce communication channels

Popularity of E-commerce

 

In recent years, with the improvement of internet connections, usability, mobile devices and the greater acceptance of making purchases through online means, electronic commerce has had a very striking growth that allows it to compete in figures or surpass traditional commerce depending on the sector. 

Types of E-commerce

1. b2b (Business to Business or Business to Business)

It encompasses commercial relationships between two companies, such as the relationship between manufacturer and distributor, or distributor and retailer.

2. b2c (Business to Consumer or Business to Customer)

It encompasses commercial relationships between two companies, such as the relationship between manufacturer and distributor, or distributor and retailer.

3. c2c (Consumer to Consumer o Consumer to consumer)

This is a sale between individuals, without wholesale companies or suppliers intervening directly. Currently there are multiple second-hand sales platforms that facilitate this type of agreements between individuals: Wallapop, Ebay, etc.

4. b2e (Business to Employee or Company to employee)

They are the products or services that a company makes available to its employees, generally offering some advantage such as a better price.

5. g2c (Government to Consumer or Government to consumer)

They are the platforms that governments make available to their citizens to carry out transactions such as paying taxes, fines or other types of payments.

Advantages of electronic commerce compared to traditional commerce

E-commerce has various advantages over traditional or physical commerce, among them we can find the following:

  • Absence of geographical barriers for the client (as long as logistics allows it)

  • Absence of shopping hours

  • Possibility of customer segmentation to carry out online marketing strategies

E-commerce communication channels

Today’s technology offers various ways for sellers or retailers to communicate with their customers. The most popular channels are: