Service Providers of the Information Society - Firms Employ E-commerce to a Greater Extent in Procurement Than in Sales and Marketing

Among the service providers of the information society it has become increasingly common to make use of e-commerce in the procurement of inputs rather than in sales and marketing of ones own products and services. Roughly 64 per cent of all firms in this sector confirm having ordered products and services over the internet in 2010. However, only 29 per cent of all firms sold their products or services over the internet in 2010. This is the result of the March 2011 survey conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim in cooperation with Creditreform Neuss. (See details on the survey at the end of the press release.)

The economic sector service providers of the information society embraces both ICT-providers (companies engaged in software and IT-services, ICT specialized trade and telecommunication services) and knowledge intensive service providers (companies associated with tax consultancy and accounting, consultants, architects, technical consultancy and planning, research and development and advertising).

“Firms in the software and IT-services sector are leading in terms of procurement over the internet with 81 per cent, whereas tax consultants and accountants fall behind as indicated by the figure of 48 per cent”, says Miruna Sarbu, researcher at the Centre for European Economic Research. “In terms of e-commerce use for product or service distribution, the telecommunication services clearly emerges as the leading sector in 2010. Roughly 58 per cent offer their customers the option of placing orders over the internet. In contrast to this, e-commerce as a way of sales is least popular among tax consultants and accountants with merely 12 per cent. A total of 17 per cent of all enterprises additionally purchase goods and services over the internet from abroad. Especially telecommunication services and consultants, both accounting for 27 per cent of firms employing e-commerce in this particular way, are strongly involved, whereas technical consultants and planners as well as tax consultants and accountants come in last with close to six or seven percent, respectively.

Furthermore, as the figure of six percent indicates, significantly less firms of the sector sell their products and services abroad over the internet. In this context, the ICT services have assumed a pioneer role with 19 per cent of the companies confirming sales abroad over the internet. This practice is least common among the technical consultants and planners. Merely one per cent of the latter report corresponding activities.

For further information please contact

Miruna Sarbu, Phone +49 (0)621/1235-334, E-mail sarbu@zew.de

The economic survey conducted by the ZEW/Creditreform

About 700 companies participate in the quarterly survey. The economic sector service providers of the information society consists of information and communication technology (ICT) service providers (businesses of the branches software and IT services, ICT specialised trade and telecommunication services) and knowledge intensive service providers (businesses of the branches tax consultancy and accounting, business consultancy, architectural offices, technical consultancy and planning, research and development and advertising).

Comment on the projection

To ensure the representativity of the analyses, the ZEW projects the answers of the survey participants with the turnover value of the businesses with regard to the entire economic branch.