What is B2B E-Commerce?
B2B stands for Business-to-Business and refers to Electronic Commerce between businesses rather than between a business and a consumer. (You’ll sometimes see this referred to as B2C E-Commerce). Businesses can often deal with hundreds or thousands of other businesses, either as customers or suppliers. Carrying out these transactions electronically gives obvious advantages over traditional methods. It’s faster, cheaper and more convenient. Electronic transactions have been around for a while in the form of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). However, EDI generally requires each supplier and customer to set up a dedicated data link between them, whereas E-Commerce using the Internet provides an easy and cheap method for companies to set up multiple and ad-hoc links. E-Commerce has also led to the development of electronic marketplaces where suppliers and potential customers are brought together.
