What is B2B?
You can define B2B, Business that sells products or provides service=s to other businesses. Business-to-business activity exists both online and offline.

General Use of B2B
The term is generally used to refer to business-to-business commerce on the Internet, but can be applied to offline relationships between two or more businesses as well.

What is Business-to-Business E-Commerce?

B2B commerce can be defined as "doing business electronically" or business that is conducted over the Internet. The business-to-business kind of e-commerce refers to a company selling or buying from other companies. The company communicates with the other companies by electronic means.
This is actually not new, as many businesses have already been doing it since the 80’s by means of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
Many organizations have been using EDI to conduct business transactions electronically. EDI is a method of extending the organization's computing power beyond its boundaries.

What is the difference between B2B and EDI?

A quick comparison of B2B and EDI is in order before delving further into B2B Just like B2B. EDI allowed electronic communication between businesses. There are two major differences, however:

1. B2B is real-time while EDI is batch.
2. B2B (using XML) allows any business to communicate with any other business. EDI was dedicated point to point (which means that if a business wanted to use EDI to communicate with a new business partner it was a big hassle),

Describe the B2B Technology

Business –to-business will allow invoices, purchase orders, product definitions, price lists, and billing information to be transferred directly between manufacturer and dealer. In its completion, B2B will consist of 4 main business transactions: Price List Download, Vendor Invoicing, Shipment Manifest, and Electronic Ordering.

What are the benefits of B2B Exchanges?

We can simply describe that B2B exchanges are online marketplaces for businesses to buy and sell well and services from other businesses. Automated business-to-business transactions are not an entirely new concept. Large organizations have been using automated systems for a number of years, and some have been programmed to exchange business transactions with other automated systems as far back as the early nineties.

There are three categories of B2B exchanges

1. Private marketplaces are run by a single company and its key suppliers, such those sponsored by Wal-Mart and Dell.
2. Public exchanges such as Commerce One are run by a third party, and are open to all companies that meet the standards defined by the exchange.
3. Consortia are typically formed by a group of leading vendors in a particular industry, like Global Food Exchange.

There are three types of B2B markets

1. MRO
2. Yield manager
3. Exchange

These are the most common advantages of B2B

1. In B2B you can make online membership. Join thousands of businesses in your region that are taking advantage of B2B Advantage Online.
2. Enjoy unlimited access to the Web from over 4,000 points of presence nationwide as well as membership in a legal plan designed specifically for small business.
3. Your membership contains valuable benefits including unlimited Internet access, an Internet directory listing, a customized website, web-based email with 6 individual accounts, as well as discounted legal services and free tax preparation
4. With B2B’s Tax Service, you receive unlimited federal tax advice via toll-free phone call, fax, or email.
5. In B2B you build your own business web site free in a few minutes. You can add your business hours, key words, and marketing information.

In this article we discussed that what are the uses and benefits of B2B? Introduction of B2B. Some advantages of B2B, types of B2B markets and B2B e-commerce is also mentioned in this article.