Electronic Business

The number of digital buyers is expected to reach 2.1 billion by 2021. In 2018, approximately 1.7 billion customers were shopping online. In the same year, more than half of consumers bought clothing items over the internet. Electronics, e-books, cosmetics and food are among the best-selling product categories worldwide.

Considering these facts, it makes sense to move your business online. After all, every entrepreneur wants to be ahead of the game when it comes to branding, advertising and customer acquisition. Web-only retailers such as eBay and Amazon make billions of dollars each year. Amazon, for example, had a total revenue of $232 billion in 2018. Furthermore, United States e-commerce sales accounted for more than 10 percent of all U.S. retail sales in the first quarter of 2019.

An e-business enterprise allows you to expand your reach and sell to a global audience. The definition of electronic business, or e-business, is any kind of business transaction that takes place over the internet. This term encompasses all forms of sharing digital information online to support and improve business processes, including email marketing, content management systems, payment processing systems, electronic order processing and more.

E-Commerce Business Models

E-commerce is a subset of electronic business. It can be divided into several categories depending on your target audience. These may include business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C), consumer to consumer (C2C), consumer to business (C2B) and more.

B2B enterprises, for example, sell products or services to other companies. Financial experts estimate that global B2B e-commerce revenue will reach a staggering $6.7 trillion by 2020. B2C companies, on the other hand, sell directly to the end customer. C2C e-commerce encompasses transactions that take place between customers – think of Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or eBay (even though businesses may use these platforms too).

C2B e-commerce encompasses the transaction of products and services between customers and organizations. If you provide copywriting or web design services on Upwork for business customers, that's an example of C2B. What these business models have in common is the use of the internet. E-business, by contrast, involves using the internet, intranet and extranet to exchange information, conduct transactions or streamline business processes.