E-commerce has simply been described as the art of exchanging goods and services over an internet platform. The rise of technology as well as the rise of a knowledge based economy has greatly aided the development of e-business (Nabeel, 2006). E-commerce has basically embraced three main models namely the business to business model, which is also known as the B2B model, the business to consumer model that is also known as the B2C model and the consumer to consumer model that is also known as the C2C model (Caroline, 2002).
The B2B model entails the exchange of goods and services between two businesses, the B2C model entails the exchange of goods and / or services between a business and consumers while the C2C model is an online platform that links consumers who may want to exchange some goods and services (Caroline, 2002).
To clearly understand the models that are used by e-commerce platform, this paper takes a comparative study of two e-commerce site, the Australia based LaptopStand.com.au and the internationally recognize e-commerce site, eBay.com.
LaptopStand.com is among the upcoming e-Commerce sites in Australia and it specializes on supplies of laptops, their stands or any other stands that are in line with technological products. The site has utilized a B2C model where the business links directly to customers of the products. In such a system, LaptopStand.com links laptop buyers to various qualities of laptops and their accessories such as stands and laptop seats.
The site also offers the consumers necessary customer support services such as shipping and other forms of deliveries. The site is owned by Innovative Ventures International Pty Ltd has been in business operations for the last four years and it boasts of satisfied customers due to effective business models (Yua, Shunsheng, and Huangb, 2011).
On the other hand, eBay utilizes several ecommerce platforms due to its dominant position in global e-commerce business. However, eBay is a notable international user of C2C model where various consumers are linked together with the sole purpose of exchanging goods and services.
The C2C platform allows private sellers to meet with interested buyers such that the two parties agree on a sale agreement before closing a deal. Due to the wide nature of the business specialization that are dealt with by this giant online shop, eBay has categorized its wares in different related categories to aid in the supply of goods and services to the consumers. This makes it easy to pick whatever ones wants as there are leading areas that can aid the navigation of the customer through the links.
In conclusion, when the two sites are juxtaposed I have been able to learn that an e-commerce platform is determined by the nature of the business that a company wants to conduct.
Specialized sites like that of LaptopStand.com can be constructed in a such a manner that allows consumers to have a direct view of what they want to purchase while complicated sites such as eBay calls for specialized links to allow easier navigability. It is also evident that a business to consumer’s model links a business to consumers while a consumer to consumer model allows for various categories of consumers to be directly linked together.
Reference List
Caroline, C. 2002, Understanding B2B e-commerce implementation: the evolving Australian experience, School of Management Information Systems, Deakin University.
Nabeel A.Y. 2006, A framework for electronic commerce research in small to medium-sized enterprises, in Electronic commerce in small to medium-sized enterprises : frameworks, issues and implications, Idea Group, Hershey, Pa., pp.1-16.
Yua, X., Shunsheng G., and Huangb, X. 2011, Rank B2C e-commerce websites in e-alliance based on AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS. Expert Systems with Applications. 38(34), Pages 3550-3557