1. E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These business transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business. [1]
Business-to-consumer (B2C) is the retail part of e-commerce on the internet. It is when businesses sell products, services or information directly to consumers. The most recognized example is Amazon, which dominates the B2C market. [1]
E-commerce marketplaces have been on the rise around the world since the mid-1990s with the launch of giants we know today, such as Amazon, Alibaba, and others. By offering a broad selection and extreme convenience to customers, they’ve been able to quickly scale up through innovation and optimization on the go. [4]
As online shopping increases, the gains for e-commerce businesses are coming at the expense of brick-and-mortar retail stores. Online sales in the US increased 14.9% in 2019, compared to a rise of 13.6% the prior year, according to the US Department of Commerce. [2]
