Models of eBusiness/eCommerce
The eBusiness/eCommerce models, like any business model, describe how business works, how to serve products, how revenues are generated, how to create, and adapt to changing market situations and technologies.
Traditionally there are four business models vis. B2B, B2C, C2B, C2C – these are the eBusiness concepts, value propositions, sources of revenue, and the required activities, resources, and capabilities. In a successful online business, all of these business models work together in a cooperative and supportive way.
Today, mainly all eBusiness/eCommerce models can be categorized in the following 7 categories.
1. Business-to-Business (B2B) Model
The B2B business model is when a business buys and sells goods and services to and from other business firms. It is the common model when a company directly sells its products to other companies instead of selling directly to final customers.
Alibaba, Amazon Business, Aliexpress, etc. are some examples of B2B eBusiness models. Websites or online businesses following this model first buy goods and services from other businesses and then sell them to the consumers.
2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Model
In the B2C business model, the business directly sells its products and services to final consumers. This is the most common form of eCommerce.
Whenever we directly buy products from shops, stores, restaurants, etc. is considered a B2C business model. Amazon despite being a B2B model also directly sells to consumers, Daraz.com is an example of a B2C model.
This model allows consumers to visit companies’ websites and surf the products they wish to look for, choose, and make orders for. When they make orders, the ordered products are delivered within the time specified.
3. Consumer-to-Business (C2B) Model
In the C2B business model, consumers sell their ideas, products, and services directly to the business firms. It is most commonly seen in the websites that allow especially freelancers to sell their expertise to businesses.
Upwork, and Fiverr, are examples that allow contractors or freelancers to post their talents on their profiles along with their service charges. And, the company which seeks to get service from freelancers can easily visit such websites and choose that match their budget and expectations.
The trend of C2B businesses is rising since it enables individual people to sell their talents without having their own specific office space and companies also benefit from quality service at competitive (low) prices.
4. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) Model
As the name speaks, the C2C model allows consumers to sell their products directly to other consumers. This is the most liked model by consumers who want to sell their second-hand products – in addition, they also sell residential property, cars, mobiles, motorcycles, room rent, etc. by uploading information on profiles or running ads on such websites.
eBay, Craigslist, Esty, Hamrobazar, etc. companies (websites) support the C2C business model. Such websites may or may not charge consumers for such services. A consumer looking for buying from another consumer may opt for such websites.
5. Business-to-Government (B2G) Model
In the B2G model, business firms sell their products and services to government agencies. The government agency could be local, country, state, or federal.
Here, government agencies have relationships with business firms – for e.g. a private engineering company sells its engineering services to a county government to develop a new water and sewer system for the community. In the B2G model, typically governments announce requests for proposals (RFPs) for required projects, and companies willing to provide service are selected through bidding.
6. Government-to-Business (G2B) Model
In the G2B model of eBusiness, governments provide services like auctions, tenders, and applications submissions facilities to business companies. Companies are requested to participate in e.g. tenders and bid their prices and the government agency handles such process and the highest bidder is given the proposed project.
The G2B model has reduced different fights that used to be offline when different auctions and tenders were held. Now no such disturbances are recorded as all tenders, actions are done, evaluated, and finalized through online means.
7. Government-to-Citizen (G2C) Model
In the G2C model, governments use websites to support their citizens such as enabling payments of electric bills, water bills, registration of birth, marriage, deaths, and other activities that have certainly reduced excess lines and times required to fill different governments forms on different agencies.
Now, many governments have applied the G2C model, as such general people’s work is easily completed, they save their most time and can invest in other activities, such governments step has helped people to achieve productivity to some extent.
8. Government to Government (G2G) Model
Government to government (G2G) is a term used to describe interactions between governments, typically at the national level.
There are several benefits of G2G, including the ability to improve the efficiency of government operations, the potential to make government operations more transparent and the ability to provide citizens with easier access to government services.
In addition, G2G can help build trust and cooperation between different government agencies and might lead to better outcomes for citizens.
For Example: E-approval - Document Management System, E-HMIS ( Ministry of Health), Local Government planning, budgeting and monitoring, PSC