Business to Business e-commerce is the largest form of e-commerce. It is e-commerce between two organizations. It is also known as e-business and is experiencing an explosive growth rate on the internet. Companies are now mutually buying and selling products and services on the internet.
Business to Business e-commerce (B2B)
B2B e-commerce is more than a mechanism for taking orders online. It is a network of independent organizations involved in a business area or an industry. It is also a new way to view products, production, and pricing.
It is delivering customized services and goods, and managing inventory for business partners. With B2B e-commerce, supply-chain participants are directly connected.
B2B offers unique benefits such as less human intervention, less overhead expenses, fewer error, more efficiency, more advertising exposure, new markets. It is a win-win situation for both buyer and seller.
There are two primary components of the B2B market: E-infrastructure and E-markets. The e-marketplace is an online electronic market where buyers and sellers meet to exchange goods, services, money or information.
E-infrastructure is the architecture of B2B which primarily consists of logistics, application service providers consist of logistics, application service providers, outsourcing of functions in the process of e-commerce etc.
Features of B2B e-commerce:-
Following are the features of B2B e-commerce:-
- In B2B e-commerce, one business uses a web browser to interact with a web server application of another business.
- The relationship focuses on online procurement, order-fulfillment, and work-in-progress tracking for high-volume transactions.
- With B2B e-commerce, supply-chain participations are directly connected.
- Multiple forms of electronic payment and other payment methods are permitted. Several banking instruments and internet payment schemes are permitted.
- There are prior agreements or contracts between the partners involved in B2B e-commerce.
- A much higher level of information exchange between the different trading partners is involved in the B2B e-commerce business cycle.
- There are multiple levels of authorization of purchases, each level having its own limits on expenditure on various types of goods.
- B2B e-commerce involves a different type of taxation regimes depending on where the two parties are from and what type of goods are being transacted.