The term "B2C" describes commerce transactions from businesses to customers, as practiced by many e-commerce websites including VANCL and 360buy. On the contrast, Taobao.com, China's largest online shopping site, has applied a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) business model.

Chinese B2C sites saw a sales peak on Nov. 11, 2011, as a result of the special discounts they offered to mark the "ultimate Singles' Day of the century." Data showed that the total sales of Taobao Mall, the B2C unit of the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, exceeded 100 million yuan (US$15.85 million) within just eight minutes past 0:00 a.m. that day. The figure soared to 2 billion yuan by 4:00 pm, more than double the total sales on the same day in 2010.

From the sharp fall of Mecox Lane shares, China's first B2C stock, to VANCL's IPO delay, negative reports have indicated that next year will be as challenging as it is promising for the B2C market.

“B2C”指的是企業對消費者的商務交易模式。許多電子商務網站，如凡客誠品、京東商城等，采用的都是B2C模式；而中國最大的在線購物網站淘寶網則采用了消費者對消費者的交易模式，簡稱“C2C”。

2011年11月11日被認為是“終極世紀光棍節”。中國的B2C購物網站在這一天紛紛推出特價優惠活動，掀起了又一輪網購高峰。電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴集團旗下的B2C平臺淘寶商城從11日零點開始進行光棍節優惠活動。數據顯示，到當天0:08分，僅僅8分鐘，淘寶商城的交易額就突破了1億元（約合1585萬美元）；截至當日下午4時，淘寶商城成交額突破20億元，較2010年“雙11”全天成交額翻倍。

另一方面，號稱“中國B2C第一股”的麥考林股價大跌，凡客首次公開募股延后，所有這些負面新聞也預示著：對于眾多B2C商家而言，新的一年里危機和機遇并存。