In e-commerce, what does the abbreviation B2C mean?

In e-commerce, B2C means business-to-consumer.

The term describes transactions in which a company sells products or services directly to individual customers. An online clothing shop selling a jacket to a shopper is a B2C transaction, as is a streaming service selling a subscription to a household.

B2C is commonly contrasted with B2B, or business-to-business, in which the buyer is another organization. C2C, or consumer-to-consumer, describes transactions between individuals, often through a marketplace platform.

The growth of the commercial internet made B2C e-commerce a major retail channel. Companies may sell through their own websites, mobile apps, social-commerce tools or third-party marketplaces. The acronym describes the relationship between seller and buyer, not a particular technology or payment method.