B2B ~

Business-to-Business is a term commonly used to describe commerce transactions between businesses, as opposed to those between businesses and other groups, such as business-to-consumers (B2C) or business-to-government (B2G). More specifically, B2B is often used to describe an activity, such as B2B marketing, or B2B sales, that occurs between businesses and other businesses.

The volume of B2B transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving subcomponent or raw materials, and only one B2C transaction, specifically sale of the finished product to the end customer. For example, an automobile manufacturer makes several B2B transactions such as buying tires, glass for windshields, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to the consumer, is a single B2C transaction.

B2C ~

Business-to-Consumer (sometimes called Business-to-Customer) describes activities of businesses serving end consumers with products and/or services.

An example of a B2C transaction would be a person buying a pair of shoes from a retailer. The transactions that led to the shoes being available for purchase, that is the purchase of the leather, laces, rubber, etc. as well as the sale of the shoe from the shoemaker to the retailer would be considered transactions.

B2E ~

Business-to-Employee electronic commerce uses an intra-business network which allows companies to provide products and/or services to their employees. Typically, companies use B2E networks to automate employee-related corporate processes.

Examples of B2E applications include:

• Online insurance policy management
• Corporate announcement dissemination
• Online supply requests
• Special employee offers
• Employee benefits reporting
• 401(k) management
• Electronic time-clock and payroll management

B2G ~

Business-to-Government is a derivative of B2B marketing and often referred to as a market definition of "public sector marketing" which encompasses marketing products and services to government agencies through integrated marketing communications techniques such as strategic public relations, branding, marcom (marketing communications), advertising, and web-based communications. B2G networks allow businesses to bid on government RFPs in a reverse auction fashion. Public sector organizations (PSO's) post tenders in the form of RFP's, RFI's, RFQ's etc. and suppliers respond to them.