COMMERCE

Although most commercial transactions still take place through conventional channels, rising numbers of consumers and businesses are using the Internet for electronic commerce. In 2006, total e-commerce spending by consumers and businesses surpassed $5 trillion... There are many ways in which electronic commerce transactions can be classified. One is by looking at the nature of the participants in the electronic commerce transaction. The three major electronic commerce categories are business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce... Business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce involves retailing products and services to individual shoppers. Barnes&Noble.com, which sells books, software, and music to individual consumers, is an example of B2C e-commerce.