Question 1

What does the online/offline split in the eCommerce market represent?

Accepted Answer

The online/offline split in the Sales Channels box shows the share of online retail versus offline retail. The total of 100% corresponds to the market size of the relevant market in Statista’s Consumer Market Insights, which covers both online and offline sales.

The online share, meanwhile, represents the corresponding eCommerce market. The remaining share refers solely to offline sales.

Question 2

What does Shop Software mean?

Accepted Answer

Shop software, also known as eCommerce software or online store software, is a type of computer program designed to help businesses create, manage, and operate an online store. It typically includes a set of features and tools for managing online sales, inventory, customer data, payment processing, shipping, and other aspects of eCommerce. Shop software can vary in complexity, from simple platforms for small businesses to more advanced solutions for large enterprises.

Some popular examples of shop software include Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. For more details see our glossary.

Question 3

What does Payment Provider mean?

Accepted Answer

A payment service provider (PSP) is a third-party company that allows businesses to accept electronic payments, such as credit card and debit card payments. PSPs act as intermediaries between those who make payments, i.e. consumers, and those who accept them, i.e. retailers.

They will often provide merchant services and act as a payment gateway or payment processor. We identify all payment providers mentioned in the check-out process of a store. ECDB has identified over 500 different PSPs worldwide.

Question 4

What does Shipping Provider mean?

Accepted Answer

A shipping service provider (SSP) is a company that handles the physical transportation of goods from the seller to the buyer. SSP offer a variety of delivery options, such as standard or express shipping, and can deliver to various destinations, including domestic and international locations. Examples of shipping service providers include DHL, UPS, and FedEx.

At ECDB, we include delivery methods such as "Self-collection/Click & collect" as part of the SSP options. These options are important for customers who prefer to collect their orders in person or at a designated pickup location rather than have them delivered to their home or workplace. For more details see our glossary.

Question 5

How are monthly revenue shares defined?

Accepted Answer

The revenue share of a given month always corresponds to the year it belongs to. For example, a 7.6% revenue share in August 2023 indicates that 7.6% of the total yearly revenue in the market for 2023 was generated in that month.

Question 6

How are first and third party sales defined?

Accepted Answer

In the context of an online marketplace, a first-party seller, also known as direct seller, is the owner or operator of the marketplace that sells its own products on the platform.

A third-party seller is a brand or entity that partners with an online retailer. These sellers list their products or services on the retailer's platform, alongside the retailer's offerings.

Question 7

How is eCommerce activity revenue defined?

Accepted Answer

eCommerce activity revenue includes all gross first party sales and third party GMV generated on all online platforms operated by a company or its subsidiaries which are in-scope.

Question 8

How is gross merchandising value (GMV) defined?

Accepted Answer

GMV stands for gross merchandise value, or gross merchandise volume. It is the total value of merchandise sold through a company's online platform in a given time period. It includes the value of merchandise sold by both the first-party seller (i.e., the marketplace operator that sells its own products on that platform) and a third-party seller (i.e., sellers who do not own the marketplace but only use that platform to sell their products). GMV is the most commonly used measure of marketplace size.

GMV includes first- and third-party sales, as well as value-added tax (VAT). GMV also includes returns, marketplace commissions, and service fees (such as shipping costs).

Question 9

How is a marketplace defined?

Accepted Answer

An online marketplace is a type of eCommerce platform that allows multiple sellers to sell their products or services to consumers. In an online marketplace, the marketplace operator provides a platform where sellers can list and sell their products, and buyers can browse and purchase them. The operator typically charges a commission for each transaction and/or a fee for using the platform. Examples of online marketplaces include Amazon, eBay, and Tmall. For more details see our glossary.

Question 10

How is a store defined?

Accepted Answer

An online store is defined by its specific URL. For example, the company Zalando has different stores: zalando.de, zalando.fr, etc.

Question 11

What categories are in-scope? Which categories are out-of-scope?

Accepted Answer

Our product categories cover 250 different markets. The categories include all relevant B2C physical eCommerce categories. A detailed overview can be found here. Not included are digital eCommerce, traveling or B2B eCommerce.

Question 12

Do you have B2B data?

Accepted Answer

For the moment ECDB does not include B2B data. The modelling approaches to B2C and B2B are very different from each other. It is planned to include B2B data in the next years.

Question 13

What is the difference between global revenue and filtered revenue?

Accepted Answer

“Global revenue” refers to eCommerce net sales of a specific store. “Filtered revenue” refers to a share of the revenue which can be allocated to a specific product category and/or country. If the product category selection is “all categories” and the country selection is “worldwide”, then the “filtered revenue” equals “global revenue”.

Question 14

Why has data for past years changed?

Accepted Answer

Approaches, assumptions, input data, and scope are improved from update to update. Therefore, data from previous updates might not necessarily be comparable with current data.

Question 15

How is the data forecasted, and which sources have been used?

Accepted Answer

In our forecasts, we apply diverse forecasting techniques. The selection of forecasting techniques is based on the behavior of the relevant market. For example, the S-curve function is well suited for forecasting digital products and services due to the non-linear growth of technology adoption.

For markets with projected steady growth, we use exponential trend smoothing to illustrate the continuous market development. The parameters are adjusted individually depending on the market-country/territory combination.

As these are just some examples, more details and information on the main sources can be found in the methodology box on the content page of the respective market.

Question 16

How accurate is your data?

Accepted Answer

Data modeling by our analysts is the heart of our data generation. Based on researched, collected, harmonized and cleaned data, the different datasets are compiled into a consistent data model.

Our experienced data analysts dive deep into individual markets, countries and players and merge all data strings. With the help of various in-house created tools, we achieve data modeling that produces unique data as its output. As the data we publish are an estimation, we constantly check our estimation with published data from stock-listed companies. This helps to continually improve our estimation model.

Question 17

Where do you get your data from?

Accepted Answer

ECDB buys its data from different international suppliers. Some of them generate the data themselves, some of them act as wholesalers. All the data is GDPR conform.

Question 18

What data sources does ECDB use?

Accepted Answer

ECDB uses different data sources as a basis for revenue, market and KPI calculations. Transaction data from credit cards, debit cards, bank accounts & e-wallets are the most important source. All of the transaction data comes directly from card issuers or processors based on the transactions going over their networks.

ECDB processes more than 1 billion online & offline transactions per month. This represents approximately 2-3 % of all transactions for the analyzed companies and markets.

Almost real-time: ECDB receives the transaction data with a delay of 7 days after the purchase event and processes it immediately.

ECDB complements the transaction data with other information: company data from public companies, traffic & clickstream data, web scraping and crawling.

Transaction data

Credit cards, debit cards, bank accounts and e-wallets.
Transaction information: description, merchant name, industry sector, purchase amount, date of purchase.
Daily data processing.
Fully compliant with global privacy regulations.

Other data sources

Company data from public companies: approx. 5% of relevant retailers are stock listed.
Traffic & clickstream data.
Web scraping & crawling.

Question 19

How many countries do you cover?

Accepted Answer

ECDB analyses over 150 countries. You can find an overview of the countries in our country section.

Question 20

How often is the data updated?

Accepted Answer

The market & retailer data are updated on a monthly basis. In some cases, the data for individual markets is updated on an ad hoc basis (e.g., when new, relevant data has been released or unpredictable events occur (wars, supply chain issues).

Question 21

How are the product categories defined?

Accepted Answer

All product categories are defined at the bottom of the relevant content page. A brief introduction informs you about the products, services, and/or categories that are included and excluded in our market scope.

Question 22

Has the monetary data been adjusted for inflation?

Accepted Answer

Our data is presented in current, or nominal, prices, which means it is not adjusted for inflation (unless explicitly stated otherwise).

Question 23

What currency rates are used for the forecasts?

Accepted Answer

We use the average exchange rate of each year to convert from one currency to another. The historical data is sourced from the IMF and other references.

Question 24

What do I do if I cannot find the data I am looking for?

Accepted Answer

We are constantly extending our offers by adding new markets and including further key performance indicators. If you are looking for content that is not available, you can reach out to ECDB, which will conduct a comprehensive research tailored to your needs.

Question 25

Whom do I contact if I have feedback or questions regarding the data?

Accepted Answer

For all support requests regarding our content, please get in touch with our customer support. The request will be immediately forwarded to the responsible market analyst.

Frequently Asked Questions

Specific eCommerce Questions

Data

General

Currency & Inflation

Technical Questions & Support

Ready to Unlock the Full Power of ECDB?