e-Commerce: Business-to-Consumer

Business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce) is usually defined as the buying and selling of a product or service over the Internet between a business and a consumer for personal use. To have an appreciation for B2C e-commerce, it is appropriate to provide a bit of history from one perspective on how B2C e-commerce evolved. If one were to trace consumer buying approaches, such as from about 1950 in the United States, one would find stores of all kinds in what was referred to as “downtown” in many larger cities. By the early- to mid-1950s, consumers were introduced to shopping centers as the growth of suburbs occurred. These centers included large and smaller retailers, each with storefronts and no access to stores except by entering a ...