THE ESSENCE OF E-COMMERCE, ITS FORMS (B2C, B2B, C2C), AND THE ECONOMIC MECHANISMS OF BUSINESS MODELS
Abstract
Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has evolved from a marginal channel for retail transactions into a foundational architecture of contemporary economic exchange, mediating an estimated 22.6 percent of global retail sales in 2024 and reshaping competitive dynamics across nearly every industry. This study investigates the essence of e-commerce, the structural characteristics and operational logic of its three principal forms—Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Business-to-Business (B2B), and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)—and the economic mechanisms that underpin the value-creation and value-capture processes of e-commerce business models. Drawing on a systematic review of 58 peer-reviewed sources published between 2018 and 2025, comparative analysis of leading platforms across the three e-commerce forms, and empirical analysis of secondary data on the e-commerce market in the Republic of Uzbekistan, the paper develops an integrative framework that links the institutional, technological, and economic dimensions of e-commerce to firm-level strategic choices. The findings demonstrate that the three forms exhibit distinct profiles with respect to transaction frequency, average transaction value, switching costs, network externalities, and trust-building mechanisms, and that these profiles imply systematically different revenue logics, cost structures, and competitive strategies. The study identifies six economic mechanisms—network effects, transaction cost reduction, scale and scope economies, information asymmetry mitigation, switching cost engineering, and platform multi-homing—that jointly explain the strategic behavior of e-commerce firms and the structural evolution of e-commerce markets.
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