Scope (categories) of e-commerce services:
Based on the parties included and activities done e-commerce can be divided (or done) in four ways. They are:

1. Business to Customer (B2C)
2. Business to Business (B2B)
3. Customer to Customer (C2C)
4. Customer to Business (C2B)

1. Business to Customer (B2C):

• in business to customer (B2C) there exists a seller (businessman) at one end and customers on the other.
• The seller creates its website, puts it on internet and displays the products it sells on that website.
• Thebuyer (customer) sees these products on the seller’s website and if he likes them he places an order on the website itself.
• Once the seller receives the order be sends the product to the customer without the need of any mediator such as wholesaler, retailer, etc.
• Companies like Amazon, Flipkart, etc. provide online shopping facility which is an excellent example of B2C.
• B2C model is quite prevalent due to quick and easy sales and purchase transactions it offers.
  Online banking, railway ticket booking, etc. are other examples.

2. Business to Business (B2B):

• In B2B model both the parties are businessman i.e. one businessman sells its product to another.
• For example, a businessman would like to create its website for its customers or would like to design brochures for advertising his products. On the other hand – there is a businessman whose company does the activity of designing websites brochures, etc. for clients.
• When these two businessmen come in contact online we call it Business to Business (B2B) transaction achieved through e-commerce.
• In today’s fast changing world business units are interdependent. They need B2B trading for faster and effective results.
• Through B2B, suppliers, distributors, and other mediators come in contact. Since several businesses provide their services online to other businesses they compete among themselves which results in better products and services. It increases efficiency of routine business activities like that of supply management, inventory management, managing payments, etc.

3. Customer to Customer (C2C):

• In C2C, a customer directly comes in contact with another customer, without any mediator.
• Any internet user becomes a seller as well as buyer.
• The best example for C2C would be e-bay.com. It is an e-auction website where in a customer (seller) who wishes to sell logs into e-bay website and provide detail about the item and asks interested customers (buyers) to bid. The highest bidder buys that item.
• Other examples are Olx.com, quicker.com where a customer (seller) posts details of the items he wish to sell and interested customer (buyer buys it).

4. Customer to Business (C2B):

• In C2B model a consumer let’s say an individual who has something to offer either a service or a good sells it to companies (businesses) and in turn companies pay such customers, for the work they provide. For example, a designer (i.e. a customer) may sell his designs to a garment manufacturing company.
• Since the customer is selling his product or service he decides its price.

Other models in e-commerce:
If we consider government as an autonomous body then we may have following different categories too:
(A) Government to Business
(B) Government to Citizen
(C) Government to Government