Retailing Business to Business

Business to Business

Business to business e-commerce focuses on selling to other businesses online, and is one of the largest forms of e-commerce used today. Before the Internet, business-to-business transactions were referred to simply as trade or the procurement process. Today, we use the term B2B commerce to describe all types of computer-enabled inter-firm trade, such as the use of the Internet and other networking technologies to exchange value across organizational boundaries. B2B e-commerce has significant growth potential, which could make the ultimate size of B2B e-commerce huge. In the beginning stages of B2B e-commerce it involved inter-business exchanges, but now there are many other services included in B2B e-commerce which include e-distributors, service providers, matchmakers, and others which have widened the use of B2B e-commerce today.

The growth of B2B e-commerce is going to be at a whole different level by the year 2006. The electronic marketplaces will become the dominant form of B2B e-commerce, is not supported. Next, Private industrial networks will play a dominant role in B2B e-commerce both now and in the near future. Lastly, B2B e-commerce is a small part of all inter-firm e-commerce today, suggesting the difficulties of adopting and successfully implementing B2Be-commerce.

The evolution of B2B e-commerce has evolved over the last 30 some years through several technology-driven stages. The first step was introduced to us in the 1970's and it was called the automated order entry system. This system involved the use of telephone modems to send digital orders to large companies. This technology was later replaced in the 1980's and the 1990's by Internet workstations that involved accessing electronic online catalogs. Within this revolution there is the emergence of electronic storefronts, which are "online catalogs of products made available to the public marketplace by a single supplier" (Sutton). There are many potential benefits to using B2B e-commerce which include: lower administrative costs, lower search costs for buyers, reduced inventory costs by increasing competition among suppliers, lowering transaction costs, and increase production flexibility by ensuring delivery of parts "just in time". Those are just a few of the benefits that a company reaps with Internet based B2B e-commerce.