Business-to-business (or b2b) describes any business that sells its products or services online to another business, rather than being a consumer focused b2c (or business-to-consumer) company. B2b e-commerce involves companies buying from and selling to each other online. But there's more to it than purchasing. It has evolved to encompass supply chain management as more companies outsource parts of their supply chain to their trading partners. (www.managementfirst.com)
A great deal of recent media attention has been focused on the high profile launches and spectacular failures of business-to-consumer e-commerce/retail sites (such as boo.com). Such failures have generally cooled financial enthusiasm for online selling to consumers. The b2b sector has largely gone unnoticed by the media, yet analysts suggested that this is by far the largest area of internet activity, and one that is set to continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
B2b trading, has been in continuous development for over 20 years, first as EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and more recently as internet-based b2b activities. Originally, EDI was seen as a way to avoid duplication of data entry work within the supply chain, however, the advantages of B2B e-commerce today go far beyond this. These advantages include 24-hour a day international communication and an increased ability to make informed price and service comparisons among competitors. Real-time product availability information and digital record keeping are further benefits of making business to business transactions on-line.
The obvious difference between b2b and b2c is in who the customers are companies (b2b) or individuals (b2c). Beyond that, there are two big distinctions.
Selling to another business involves negotiating ov ...