Customer to Customer[1] (C2C) marketing is a business model that facilitates commerce between private individuals. This marketing strategy[2] blossomed with the advent of the internet[3], transitioning from traditional platforms like newspaper classifieds and auctions. Websites such as eBay have played a significant role in globalizing C2C transactions, with revenue generated through listing and transaction fees. The products involved in C2C transactions are often diverse and second-hand, and sellers usually aim for quick profits. While it offers advantages such as direct contact between buyers and sellers, it also has drawbacks like internet frauds and identity theft risks. The impact of C2C marketing can be seen in the shift of traditional retail[4] and the rise of e-commerce platforms.
Customer to customer (C2C or consumer to consumer) markets provide a way to allow customers to interact with each other. Traditional markets require business to customer relationships, in which a customer goes to the business in order to purchase a product or service. In customer to customer markets, the business facilitates an environment where customers can sell goods or services to each other. Other types of markets include business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C).
Consumer to consumer (or citizen-to-citizen) electronic commerce involves the electronically facilitated transactions between consumers through some third party. A common example is an online auction, in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers bid to purchase it; the third party generally charges a flat fee or commission. The sites are only intermediaries, just there to match consumers. They do not have to check quality of the products being offered.
Consumer to consumer (C2C) marketing is the creation of a product or service with the specific promotional strategy being for consumers to share that product or service with others as brand advocates based on the value of the product. The investment into conceptualising and developing a top-of-the-line product or service that consumers are actively looking for is equitable to a retail pre-launch product awareness marketing.