Introduction :

E Commerce stands for electronic commerce and caters to trading in goods and services through the
electronic medium such as internet, mobile or any other computer network. It involves the use of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) in making
commerce between consumers and organizations, organization and organization or consumer and
consumer. With the growing use of internet worldwide, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has also
increased in humungous amounts and so has flourished e-commerce with the prolific virtual internet
bazaar inside the digital world which is righty termed as e-malls.

Major types of ecommerce:

The several types of e-commerce in use today are classified based on the nature of
the transactions: business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), consumer-
to-consumer (C2C), consumer-to-business (C2B), and non-business and government,
and organizational (intra-business).

1) BUSINESS-TO-C
ONSUMER E-COMMERCE
In B2C e-commerce, businesses sell direct
ly a diverse group of products and
services to customers . In addition to
pure B2C e-commerce players such as
Amazon.com, and hepsiburada.com other tr
aditional businesses have entered the
virtual marketplace by establishing comprehensive web sites and virtual
storefronts. In these cases, e-commerce
supplements the traditional commerce by
offering products and services through electronic channels. Wal-Mart Stores, and
the Gap are examples of companies that ar
e very active in B2C e-commerce. Some
of the advantages of these e-commerce si
tes and companies include availability of
physical space (customers can physically
visit the store), availability of returns
(customers can return a purchased item to
the physical store), and availability of
customer service in these physical stores.
Figure 3.1 illustrates a B2C relationship.
In the figure ISP, means Internet service provider.

2) Business to Business ecommerce

Business-to-Business e-commerce holds electronic transactions among and between

businesses. The Internet and reliance of all businesses upon other companies for
supplies, utilities, and services has enhanced the popularity of B2B e-commerce
and made B2B the fastest growing segment within the e-commerce environment. In
recent years extranets (more than one intranet) have been effectively used for B2B
operations. B2B e-commerce creates dynamic interaction among the business
partners; this represents a fundamental shift in how business will be conducted in
the 21st century.

Consumer to Consumer:
Using C2C e-commerce, consumers sell directly to other consumers using the Internet and
web technologies. Individuals sell a wide variety of services/products on the Web or
through auction sites such as eBay.com, and gittigidiyor.com through classified ads or by
advertising. Figure 3.3 illustrates a general C2C e-commerce relationship. Consumers are
also able to advertise their products and services in organizational intranets and sell them
to other employees.

CONSUMER-TO-BUSINESS E-COMMERCE
Consumer-to-business (C2B) e-commerce that involves individuals selling to
businesses may include a service/product that a consumer is willing to sell.
Individuals offer certain prices for specific products/services. Companies such as
pazaryerim.com and mobshop.com are examples of C2B. Figure 2-4 shows a C2B
e-commerce relationship.

Meaning of B2B Ecommerce:

Companies doing business with each other such as manufacturers selling to distributors and
wholesalers selling to retailers. Pricing is based on quantity of order and is often negotiable.
Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, Broadvision, Commerce One, Heatheon/Webmd, 12
Technologies, Inc., Ariba , Aspect Development, Baan, BEA Systems, Internet
Capital Group, VerticalNet, Vignette are some of the major vendors of e-commerce
and B2B solutions [1].
Companies using B2B e-commerce relationship observe cost savings by increasing
the speed, reducing errors, and eliminating many manual activities. Wal-Mart
Stores is an example for B2B e-commerce. Wal-Mart's major suppliers (e.g., Proctor
& Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, and others) sell to Wal-Mart Stores electronically;
all the paperwork is handled electronically. These suppliers can access online the
inventory status in each store and refill needed products in a timely manner. In a
B2B environment, purchase orders, invoices, inventory status, shipping logistics,
and business contracts handled directly through the network result in increased
speed, reduced errors, and cost savings.[4] B2B e-commerce reduces cycle time,
inventory, and prices and enables business partners to share relevant, accurate,
and timely information. The end result is improved supply-chain management
among business partners
The following paragraphs provide brief descriptions of the advantages of B2B
ecommerce:

Scalability. An effective ecommerce solution will enable your organization to grow and scale easily to
meet market demand and customer needs by opening new sales channels and continuously reaching
new market segments.

Improved efficiencies. Through integration to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other back-
end business systems, ecommerce provides marked efficiencies for B2B organizations. Customers are
able to order online whenever and wherever suits them, customer service can focus on actual customer
service functions rather than simply being order takers, and the need to rekey data in independent
systems is eliminated, thereby eliminating the possibility of errors and improving shipping processes and
increasing order throughput.

More customers. A B2B ecommerce site with public-facing catalog pages can be a powerful way to
reach new B2B customers. As more and more B2B buyers head online to find the best prices,
manufacturers and distributors can leverage the power of the searchable—and therefore, ready to index
—pages of their site to locate new visitors and convert them into customers.

Improved brand awareness. Just as ecommerce can help B2B organizations find new customers, so
can it help improve brand awareness in the market place. Developing pages that can be indexed by
search engine crawlers is the fastest way to improve your site’s search engine optimization and improve
the likelihood that your target audience will know who you are.

Increased sales. Ecommerce allows your organization to reach new customers, which can quickly result
in new sales. However, ecommerce also allows you to easily implement an automated cross-sell and up-
sell recommendation program, thereby making relevant suggestions to customers on the site and
encouraging them to purchase related items or items with more features and functionality.

Analytics. B2B ecommerce provides the perfect platform for an organization to launch a comprehensive
analytics campaign. Through ecommerce, organizations can measure and evaluate marketing
campaigns, sales effectiveness, product mix, inventory turns, customer sales effectiveness, and customer
engagement.

Customer-centric experience. Amazon.com sets the standard for providing an exceptional ecommerce

experience and today’s online shopper expects an Amazon-like experience whether they are shopping for
business or pleasure. To remain relevant, B2B organizations need to employ intuitive design, rich content,
and interactive functionality in their websites and the ecommerce allows them to do this.

Exceptional customer service. Ecommerce provides an exceptional opportunity for the B2B

organization to improve its customer service initiatives. Ecommerce sites can provide access to self-serve
account and order information after a customer completes the secure login process. Through integration
with an organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, an ecommerce site can display only
the products, services and pricing based on customer log in credentials.

Improved sales engagement. Your physical sales team will also benefit from the launch of a
comprehensive ecommerce effort. A B2B ecommerce site will improve your sales teams’ visibility into
customer orders, pricing, and history while on the road or working remotely.

Multi-site capability. Launching channel-specific or co-branded ecommerce sites is easy with the right
B2B ecommerce platform. This capability allows you to offer co-branded websites for each of your
distributors or key clients as well allow for sites that cater to a specific international audience by
presenting content in alternate languages or currencies.
Applications in Food Industry
The advent of advanced information and communication technologies
has created a multitude of challenges and opportunities in food sectors
in developed economies. e-Business applications have enjoyed particular
acceptance, given the fact that food industries depend on effective distribution
systems in order to meet diversified consumer demands and short delivery
times, as well as maintain effective reverse logistics
During the last two decades, large companies, especially retailers and
manufactures, have used e-business applications to increase their power in
agrifood supply chains by enhancing customer service, creating economies
of scale, reducing logistics costs, and facilitating the efficient flow of food and
information .Such an achievement has been strategically leveraged by information and communication technologies
(ICTs) that enhance
the performance of food chains, i.e. in terms of cost, time and accuracy of
deliveries, and at the same time, assure food quality and safety. Small and
medium-sized food companies can use web-based e-business solutions to
exploit niche markets and create new market segments by gaining sporadic,
low volume suppliers and customers at low marginal cost.

Online selling
The following figure shows the status of online selling in the food, beverage and
tobacco sector. In particular, it indicates that only 5% of companies use
online selling. This percentage is slightly higher in the case of mediumsized
enterprises (9%) and large enterprises (8%). Nevertheless, it must
be emphasised that in the food industry, online selling is less developed in
comparison to the average of other sectors, in which there is a 16% rate of
online selling. Spain and the United Kingdom are the countries that use this
sales method the most, respectively with 10% and 9% of companies that
sell online. Instead, France is the least oriented to online selling (only 2% of
companies). The countries revealing the highest percentage of companies
that are planning to introduce online selling within the next twelve months are
Spain (11%) and the United Kingdom (13%).

Impact of online selling on companies

The following figure shows the impact of online selling on companies

in this sector. In particular, online selling has proven to have a positive impact
above all in terms of the number of customers (an aspect cited by 64% of
the companies that sell online). Moreover, although with a slightly lower
percentage, its impact on the quality of customer service (58%) and on the
efficiency of internal processes (57%) has been indicated as positive. There
is also a significant percentage of companies that gave a positive opinion
about the impact of online selling on their sales turnover, a factor that 12%
of the companies even considered a “very positive impact”. The impact that
online selling on logistics costs and stock management is less positive. For
this factor, over 65% of the companies stated that online selling has neither
a positive nor a negative impact.

Limitations associated with B2B ecommerce

Some of its’ limitations are as follows:

 Delay of goods where the earliest to receive goods would be the next day
 Some goods cannot be purchased online such as perishable items
 Unable to experience the product before purchasing
 Fraudulent websites and scams
 Security issues leading to credit card fraud or identity theft.

Statement of research problem pursued

The major issues associated with B2B ecommerce include.

1) Lack of defining significant problems associated with validation of B2B terms and
methodology
2) Organizational internal and external operations are not linked with each other, so
there is lack of investigation in finding out what is happening in the business
environment and how the relationships are changing.