E-COMMERCE

Electronic Commerce

Often referred to as simply e-commerce, business that is conducted over the Internet using any of the applications that rely on the Internet, such as e-mail, instant messaging, shopping carts, Web services, UDDI, FTP, and EDI, among others. Electronic commerce can be between two businesses transmitting funds, goods, services and/or data or between a business and a customer.

See Understanding "Web Services" in the "Did You Know...?" section of Webopedia.
Also See "How Affiliate Marketing Works" in the "Did You Know..." section of Webopedia.
Also see Refer-It.com, a directory of referral & affiliate programs for e-commerce, featuring information on over 6,500 affiliate programs.

Business To Customer (B2C)

Business-to-consumer (B2C, sometimes also called Business-to-Customer) describes activities of businesses serving end consumers with products and/or services.

An example of a B2C transaction would be a person buying a pair of shoes from a retailer. The transactions that led to the shoes being available for purchase, that is the purchase of the leather, laces, rubber, etc. as well as the sale of the shoe from the shoemaker to the retailer would be considered (B2B) transactions.

Customer To Customer - C To C

A type of business model that facilitates interaction between customers. Customer to customer businesses provide individuals with a place to converse, exchange and interact with other people.
Also sometimes referred to as "C2C".

Many C2C businesses have online operations. Online auctions and classifieds such as Ebay and Craig's List are examples of very successful customer to customer business models. These sites don't look to directly sell goods to their members, instead the customers are exchanging with other customers.