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Dear Sir,

I am a currently taking part in a Masters Degree in engineering at the university in Galway, Ireland where I am interested in finding out "digital business" or ebusiness. I would appreciate it if you could me with any information on the following question in relation to digital business.

What is the difference between business to business and business to customer/consumer in terms of digital business and the benefits and limitations of each?

And how does the consumer and business benefit from the close relationship through internet based transactions

I would be most grateful if you could forward any information on these question. Hoping to hear from you soon.

Thanking you

Kevin

Obviously, I can't answer your questions in detail as that would be doing your research for you! And there'd be no fun in that.

A good place to start for general information, differentiating between business to business (b-b) and business to consumer (b-c) e-commerce, is "Electronic Commerce - An Introduction" which you can find at

You will find that b-b e-commerce is about four times larger than the b-c variety. Indeed, there is a long history of electronic trading relations between businesses. This is because b-b e-commerce has clear benefits in improving the efficiency of locating suppliers, communicating with suppliers, ordering and payment. In many cases, the system is automated, saving time, improving efficiency and saving costs via just-in-time delivery, minimising inventories and that kind of thing. Of course the main success of b-b e-commerce has been in cutting costs rather than boosting turnover. That said, many small producers in developing countries have found the Internet a good means of finding new buyers in new markets. And while anecdotal evidence suggests they have been successful, I have seen no surveys of actual results.

B-c electronic commerce is quite new and there are still a lot of questions regarding actual benefits. Some benefits from the customer's point of view is ability to order from anywhere in the world, wider choice, ability to retrieve substantial product information, convenience, etc.

From the vendor's perspective, benefits include ability to reach a wider market, potential for reduced costs (not needing to locate in an expensive high-street location; minimising on staff, etc). Also, the overheads can be comparatively low for the entrepreneur with a niche product as the cost of establishing a web site can be less than establishing a bricks and mortar shop on the high street.

I hope this is some food for thought. It is by no means comprehensive. As Dublin is developing a thriving e-business culture, I think it could be very interesting to survey new e-businesses in your local market to find out what benefits they are discovering. If you do this, let me know what you find out. I'm very interested.