2. E-business uptake

Did you know?

In 2015-16, 95% of firms in reporting OECD countries had a broadband connection, but only 22% made sales via e-commerce.

Almost no business today is run without ICTs, but the extent to which countries integrate ICT tools into their business processes tends to vary across countries in line with firm and industry composition. Finland had the largest proportion of enterprises using cloud computing in 2016 (57%), but uptake of big data analytics was lower than in the Netherlands (19%) and Belgium (17%). Similarly, use of cloud services in Germany (16%) is lower than in the average OECD country (25%), but German enterprises account for the highest uptake of electronic resource planning (ERP, 57%) and the second highest usage of customer relationship management (CRM, 45%). Korea has the highest proportion of enterprises using radio frequency identification (RFID, 42%), but the lowest uptake of big data analytics (4%).

On average, 22% of OECD enterprises made sales via e-commerce in 2015, representing an increase of 3 percentage points only since 2009. Differences among countries remain large. In New Zealand, over half of enterprises reported making sales via e-commerce, compared to less than one in ten firms in Korea and Mexico.

Non-harmonised definitions of e-sales may explain some of these differences however the main cause seems to be the weight of smaller firms in economies. On average, 40% of larger firms engaged in e-sales in 2015, compared to only 20% of small enterprises.

Definitions

Broadband includes both fixed and mobile connections with an advertised download rate of at least 256 kbps. Supply chain management refers to the use of automated data exchange (ADE) applications. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are software-based tools for managing internal information flows. Customer relationship management (CRM) is software for managing a company’s interactions with customers, employees and suppliers. Cloud computing refers to ICT services over the Internet to access server, storage, network components and software applications. Big data refers to the analysis of vast amounts of data generated by activities carried out electronically and through machine-to-machine communications.

Size classes are defined as small (10-49 employees), medium (50-249 employees) and large (250 employees or more).

E-sales refer to the sale of goods or services conducted over computer networks by methods specifically designed for the purpose of receiving or placing orders (i.e. webpages, extranet or EDI), but not orders made by telephone, fax or manually typed e-mail.

Measurability

Measurement of e-commerce presents several methodological challenges that can affect international comparability, such as the adoption of different practices for data collection and estimations, as well as the treatment of outliers and the extent of e-commerce carried out by multinationals. Other issues include differences in sectoral coverage of surveys and lack of measures concerning the actors involved (B2B, B2C, etc.). Convergence of technologies brings additional challenges for the treatment (and surveying) of emerging transactions, notably over mobile phones, via SMS or through the use of devices that enable near-field communication. Not all OECD countries undertake specific surveys on ICT usage by businesses. Aside from differences in the survey vehicle, the majority of indicators correspond to generic definitions, which can only proxy the functionalities and potential uses of ICT tools. For example, various software tools with different functionalities fall under the same ERP heading, and there are substantial differences in the sophistication of ERP systems and their degree of implementation. Cloud computing services and big data raise similar issues.