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Types of ecommerce business models

Generally, there are seven main models of ecommerce that businesses can be categorized into, each catering to different audiences and types of transactions. Let’s review each type in more detail.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C).

One of the most popular sales models in ecommerce, B2C ecommerce involves transactions made between a business and a consumer. For example, when you buy shoes from an online retailer, it’s a B2C ecommerce transaction. Some of the most popular ecommerce businesses today are B2C sellers — think Walmart, Target, or Sephora.

Business-to-Business (B2B).

Unlike B2C, B2B ecommerce encompasses online sales made between businesses, such as a manufacturer and a wholesaler or retailer. B2B is not consumer-facing and happens only between businesses. For example, many popular tech companies — such as Hubspot, Slack, and Microsoft — primarily sell their products and services to other businesses.

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C).

One of the earliest forms of ecommerce, consumer-to-consumer involves the sale of products or services between customers. This can also include any provider that manages a C2C online transaction, such as those seen on eBay or Amazon. A prime example of a C2C sale is when someone uses an online marketplace, such as Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, to sell a good or service to another person.

With a groundbreaking Spark product launch event coming up and some inspiring awards and recognitions earned over the past few months, it’s an exciting time for the LivePerson team! With the last quarter in the rearview mirror, we thought it would be a good time to check in with our CEO John Sabino — who just so happens to have closed out his first quarter with the company after joining in January. While the main topic of our discussion was how LivePerson is keeping up the drumbeat of AI innovations, we also covered everything from challenging the status quo of today’s contact centers’ customer communications to highlighting some of our incredible clients. You can check out our discussion below.

Fast Company recently named LivePerson to its Applied AI list, which honors companies “embracing AI to reinvent how business is done.” How is LivePerson helping enterprise brands apply AI in the real world to generate real results?

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