` Have you ever wondered how all the products you buy every day get to those stores or how that website is able to ship you what you want? Have you ever wondered how all these companies prepare these products and wait for you? Well, I can tell you that they don't appear out of nowhere! Businesses use what is called a supply chain to enable them to provide consumers with the products they want and need. What exactly is a supply chain and how does it ensure that everyone gets what they need? In this article, we will define a supply chain and also look at business-to-business supply chains and business-to-business supply chains and see how they differ and how they are similar. Investopedia.com defines a supply chain as follows: “Supply chains include all businesses that come into contact with a particular product. For example, the supply chain for most products will encompass all companies that manufacture parts for the product, assemble it, deliver it, and sell it. (www.investopedia.com) There are many types of products and services that provide consumers with what they need or want, but they all have one thing in common: they use a supply chain to make this possible. There are two main types of supply chains today, called business-to-business supply chains and business-to-business supply chains. In this document, Business to Business supply chains will be referred to as B2B and Business to Consumer, B2C. The main difference between B2B and B2C supply chains is the number of channels a product travels through before reaching the end user. B2B supply chains have fewer channels overall and are larger in size, while B2C supply chains have a greater number of smaller channels overall. In order to understand how both work, it is important to understand the process a business will follow to achieve a specific outcome. . For example, if you look at a bicycle manufacturer that needs to purchase wheels for their product, only a few channels are involved. They would go directly to a tire manufacturer and obtain the necessary parts. (www.toolsgroup.com) A simple example of a B2B supply chain would be: bicycle manufacturer -> tire manufacturer -> raw material resellers.