Supply Chain

This research paper will be used as a guide to explain how the supply chain differs on a B2C site (business to consumer),which is consumer shopping on the web, compared to a B2B site (business to business), which is transactions conducted between businesses on the web.

A supply chain is a process that involves a series of steps to process a transaction in order to get the end product, service to consumer, or the end result. When it comes to the consumer, it can be a business or an individual. There are two types of supply chains that will be discussed through out this research paper. The two types of supply chains are B2B and B2C. B2B is business to business transactions and B2C is business to consumer transactions. There are different steps that are associated with B2B and B2C process that are quite different from one another, which also may involve different systems and management styles to ensure their correctness. "The part of an industry value chain that precedes a particular strategic business unit is often called a supply chain (Schneider, 2004)." "A company's supply chain for a particular product or service includes all the activities undertaken by every predecessor in the value chain to design, produce, promote, market, deliver, and support each individual component of that product or service (Schneider, 2004)." Majority of all supply chains are managed a team to help ensure that the end product reaches its destination in a cost efficient and timely manner.

The B2B and B2C supply chains may seem to be similar; unfortunately, they are not. "The main difference between B2B and B2C is the amount of channels a product must flow through before reaching the end user (Johnson, 2005)." "With B2B there are less total channels; however, they are greater in size when compared to the greater amount of smaller channels represented with B2C (Marketing Profs, 2005)."

The next difference associated between B2B site and B2C site when it comes to the supply chain is integration. This type of technology is needed by B2B to help enable them to be integrated with their business partners' software to ensure a smooth re-supply, communication, billing, etc. "This is an aspect that B2C does not have to worry about since the customer will return to them out of loyalty versus convenience (Johnson, 2005)."

One of the major differences between B2B and B2C sites is that B2B concerns itself primarily with supply chain management. "These are portals that allow businesses to deal directly with their suppliers and distributors online which allows electronic transfer of orders, invoicing, and payments (A-K Strategic website, 2008)." However, B2C sites are go between portals to link customers to suppliers. It is because B2C concerns itself with selling to the end user.

"In many companies, procurement staff must have high levels of product knowledge to identify and evaluate appropriate suppliers (Schneider, 2004)." The part of procurement action dedicated to identifying suppliers and determining the qualifications of those suppliers is called sourcing. Sourcing is primarily used by the B2C site. "The use of Internet technologies in procurement and sourcing activities is called e-procurement and e-sourcing, which is used by the B2B site. All these procurement