Internet - Challenges of B2B and B2C E-commerce

The Challenges of B2B and B2C E-commerce

E-commerce “is the exchange of money for goods or services between companies and/or end consumers” (Hemond-Wilson). The most common image of e-commerce “is that of a web-based catalogue from which buyers can order products and the sellers can receive payment” (Hemond-Wilson). E-commerce has two main forms, which are business-to-business, and business to consumer. B2B e-commerce “is business which is conducted between businesses via some electronic means” and B2C e-commerce “is the exchange of money for goods or services between a company and end consumers using electronic technology” (Hemond-Wilson).

E-commerce dollar volume of business conducted over the Internet in 2000 and 2001 were reported to be 354.9 billion and $615.3 billion respectively, with these figures forecast to reach between $4,600 and $9,240 billion by 2005, depending on which analyst’s figures are used. Whether it’s the conservative or the optimistic, the growth projections of 747% to 1502% are indicative of the enormous opportunities for e-commerce and the business world of the future (Plante 13/11/03).

Opportunities

Over the past few years, the Internet “is fundamentally changing the way companies operate,” to create additional revenue streams and refine the way they do business with existing customers (Ecommerce). E-commerce is crucial to the future success of companies, and those that do not embrace the Internet to conduct its business “will be destroyed by competitors who are leveraging the power of the Internet” (Ecommerce).

This new way of doing business by e-commerce allows companies to revise their internal operations to improve efficiency and reduce costs significantly whil...

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