Business-to-Business

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What Does Business-to-Business Mean?

Business-to-business (B2B) is an Internet business model that involves businesses that perform services or provide products for other businesses. Business information may also be shared. B2B is a form of e-commerce and it can involve businesses that manufacture a product, service or merchandise component that that is sold to another business, which then advertises or markets the product on its website for sale to consumers.

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B2B is sometimes referred to as business or industrial marketing.

Techopedia Explains Business-to-Business

B2B may include outsourcing, which occurs when a business hires a contractor with knowledge and experience in that business’s industry. The term B2B, however, is better known within the commercial trading realm, where wholesalers sell products to retailers, or a commercial original equipment manufacturer sells its products to wholesalers. Contained within a common supply chain execution are various business transactions. For instance, a home manufacturer will make purchases from lumber yards, window manufacturers, concrete businesses, etc. Each one of these transactions is considered to be a form of B2B.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.