4 Ecommerce Business Models

Business-to-Consumer
Ecommerce is  a business selling something through an online platform to a consumer, also known as business-to-consumer (B2C). The most widely known ecommerce businesses, such as Wal-Mart.com, Target.com, etc., are ones where a retailer sells directly to a consumer.

For example, Twitter provide online environment where people with similar interests can transact, share content and communicate. And they get revenue from typically hybrid, combining advertising, subscriptions, sales, transaction fees, and affiliate fees. 

Business to Business

Business-to-business (B2B) refers to a business selling directly to another business the goods or services that are used by the recipient to power their business. Wholesalers, such as parts of AliBaba’s model or manufacturers of original products, will typically sell B2B. 

Alibaba provides to people everywhere access to the Chinese supply chain. It opens up the world of international suppliers to people. And Alibaba has so many world’s manufacturing assets. The majority of Alibaba’s revenue comes from its consumer, such as AliExpress, Tmall, and Taobao. 

Consumer-to-Business

In a consumer-to-business (C2B) model, consumers sell products and services to businesses, instead of the other way around. For example, the consumers could list jobs or products they want and businesses compete. Or, a business could have a site where consumers can sell them things that they need.

Priceline.com is an example of a C2B e-business model. The website allows customers to bid for tickets and offer their own prices. 

Consumer-to-Consumer
In a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) model, the ecommerce website serves to facilitate the transaction between two consumers. 

Auction sites such as eBay,specifically when items are sold by individuals, rather than businesses listing products for auction