Service Providers of the Information Society – E-commerce Rarely Used

About 40 per cent of the IT-related service providers use e-commerce, the possibility to take orders online, in their relations with end users. The four most frequently encountered payment systems are: e-commerce invoice, direct debit, transfer or advance payment and credit card.

These are the findings of an economic survey among service providers of the information technology, conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, in cooperation with Creditreform, Neuss, in June 2007. (See details on the survey at the end of the press release.)

The possibility to take orders online by end users is very frequently used by telecommunications service providers. More than 80 per cent of these companies engage in e-commerce. About 75 per cent of the companies in the research and development sector use e-commerce and approximately two thirds of the tax consultants and accountants. Regarding the four most frequently encountered payment systems, payment by invoice is a widespread practice in all sectors whereas architects and companies of the software and IT services branch scarcely offer credit card payment in e-commerce. Just about 10 per cent of the companies of the software and IT services branch and approximately 25 per cent of the architects offer this payment option. Other electronic payment systems, such as PayPal, are applied by less than 5 per cent of the IT-related service providers. However, more than one third of the tax consultants and accountants and more than 10 per cent of the companies in the research and development sector as well as software and IT services offer this payment option to online customers.

The economic survey conducted by the ZEW/Creditreform

About 800 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). An overview of the ZEW/Creditreform economy survey is available online at www.zew.de/dienstleister

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.

Contact

Dr. Jenny Meyer, E-mail: meyer@zew.de