ECOMMERCE RESEARCH DEFINITIONS

Broadband access: the availability of broadband is measured by the percentage of households that are connectable to an exchange that has been converted to support DSL technology, to a cable network upgraded for Internet traffic, or to other broadband technologies. It includes fixed and mobile connections (source: Eurostat) B2C ecommerce sales are “Any B2C contract regarding the sale of goods and/or services,fully or partly concluded by a technique for distance communication.” Technique for distance communication: means that can be used for communication regarding the offer made by the trader and the conclusion of a contract, without the necessity of the consumer and trader being in the same place at the same time.

Contract: a contract whereby use is made, either solely or in part, of one or more techniques for distance communication within the framework of a system organized by the trader for the distance sale of goods and/or services, up to and including the moment thatthe contract is concluded.

Cross-border ecommerce: percentage of ecommerce purchased at foreign sites

Ecommerce (or electronic commerce): a subset of e-business: any B2C or B2B contract on the sale of products or services fully or partly concluded by a technique for distance communication.

Ecommerce GDP: total amount of sales of goods and services online divided by the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

E-households: number of households that use the Internet for personal gain or purchases.

E-household expenditure: expenditure per household that bought goods or services in the past year.

Emerchant: organisation that sells online. An emerchant can also sell from a bricks and mortar outlet.

Etailer: same as emerchant.

Global Online Measurement Standard for B2C Ecommerce (GOMSEC): aims to provide guidelines to measure and monitor B2C ecommerce in order to enable countries to provide data with respect to the penetration of B2C ecommerce in a standardized way.

Gross Merchandise Volume: the total sales facilitated by a third party, such as a market place.

E-services or electronic services: “Deeds, efforts or performances whose delivery is mediated by information technology. Such e-service includes the service element of e-retailing, customer support, and service delivery.” This definition reflects three main components: service providers, service receivers and the channels of service delivery (i.e.technology). (Jennifer Rowley, Prof Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)

Inactive online population: users that have access to the Internet but have not (yet) purchased goods or services online in the past year.

Market place: online platform on which companies (and consumers) sell goods and/or services

Mobile commerce (or m-commerce): the ability to conduct ecommerce using a mobile device e.g. a mobile phone, a PDA, a smartphone, a tablet or other (emerging) mobile equipment. M-commerce is a subset of ecommerce.

Mobile subscriptions: mobile cellular telephone subscriptions are subscriptions to a public mobile telephone service using cellular technology, which provide access to the public switched telephone network. Post-paid and prepaid subscriptions are included (source: Eurostat)

Online buyer (or e-shopper, E-buyer): an individual who regularly buys or orders goods or services through the Internet.

Online expenditure: spending per user who purchased goods or services online.

Online Retail (or e-retail, electronic retail or retailing or even e-tailing): the selling of retail goods and services on the Internet. In the limited sense of the word, sectors such as online leisure travel, event tickets, downloading music or software are not included (?). Online-only retail shops are often referred to as “pure players”.

Penetration levels: the percentage of a population using the Internet, mobile phones, smartphones or tablet devices.

Real economic growth rate: A measure of economic growth from one period to another expressed as a percentage and adjusted for inflation. The real economic growth rate is a measure of the rate of change that a nation's gross domestic product (GDP) experiences from one year to another.

Retail sales: the selling of, mainly, goods from businesses to individuals from a traditional or “bricks-and- mortar” retail outlet.

Returned products: Products returned under the etailer’s returns policy for replacement, money back, or for repair. Returned products are not included in total turnover figures for ecommerce.

Reverse logistics: The logistics required to recover returned goods.

Showrooming: Browsing in store and then going online in search of the best option to buy (ie the cheapest cost, ease of delivery, etc). (Nielsen, Global Connected Commerce 2016)

Webrooming: Researching online and buying in store (Nielsen, ibid)