Searcher
Vol.8, No. 8 • Sept. 2000
• FEATURE • 
E-Commerce by the Numbers: Research Sources and Solutions
by Simone Friedman, SFR Research, LLC

A client asks you to find out the size of the Internet Services market. Your company Webmaster wants to know the average screen dimensions of computer monitors in the United States. The Marketing Department needs the latest figures on the effectiveness of Web banner advertising.
What do these research questions have in common? They all relate to e-commerce and are all quantitative in nature.

Traditional sources of quantitative industry data are not very useful when it comes to e-commerce and that can make finding answers to these types of questions difficult. Unlike other industries, e-commerce does not have its own SIC or NAICS code. Companies involved in the industry are classified under several categories, making it difficult to track overall industry activity. To bypass this problem, some researchers may try to aggregate data from individual companies involved in the industry. However, since many e-commerce companies are privately held, reliable data is difficult to find. Even among public companies, creative accounting techniques sometimes affect the validity of reported data.

However, the SIC/NAICS coding problem does not mean that quantitative e-commerce data does not exist. It just means that you need to dig a little deeper to find what you seek and be a little more careful of what you find. This article will try to show you where to start your search and to point out some caveats to keep in mind along the way.
 

The E-Commerce Industry: An Introduction
The e-commerce industry — commonly referred to as the “Internet Economy” or the “New Economy” — consists of companies deriving at least some portion of their revenues from Internet-related products and services. According to the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce (CREC) at the University of Texas1, Internet Economy revenue exceeded $500 billion in 1999. By the end of 2000, CREC expects revenue to reach $850 billion. CREC contends that the Internet Economy directly supports about 2.75 million jobs, more than the number supported by the insurance or communications or public utilities industries, and more than twice the number supported by the airline or legal or real estate industries. Overall, CREC maintains that the Internet Economy grows at a rate 15 times that of the U.S. economy as a whole. As an information professional, e-commerce is clearly an industry you should know about.

The first thing you will notice when you begin e-commerce research is that the industry — like most others — has its own lingo. [See “The E-Commerce Jargon” sidebar on page 60 for a translation of some of the most commonly used acronyms and terms.] You will also notice that for-profit firms constitute the primary source for the vast majority of quantitative data in the field. However, since no standard classification system exists for the e-commerce industry, these firms produce wildly differing economic measurements and projections. Each firm uses a different conceptual framework and a different analytical methodology for its research. The end result is a situation in which estimates among firms might vary by 75 percent or more.

Be careful to cite your sources when presenting data to your end users. Treat quantitative e-commerce figures as only guidelines, not as “facts.”
 

Finding Quantitative E-Commerce Information
Market research firms in the e-commerce industry do not ascribe to the “information wants to be free” line of thinking. Typical reports cost anywhere from $1-3,000. So if you are on a limited budget, how do you find the information you need?  There are four main approaches:

1. Look at market research firms’ press releases.

2. Search for mentions of a research study in the press — often an article will quote a study’s key findings. Look in article databases or on Internet Economy publication Web sites.

3. Visit Web sites with a quantitative e-commerce focus, such as statistics aggregators. These sites provide summaries of research firms’ findings for free (or at a very low cost). Some sites also add their own analysis as well.

4. Bypass market research firms and try to locate free or low-cost data from universities, nonprofit organizations, or government agencies.

Approach #1: Press Releases
There are two main ways to access research firm press releases: by searching the press archives on company Web sites, or by searching the press release databases available through commercial vendors such as Dialog, Factiva, LEXIS-NEXIS, or Northern Light. Searching press archives on company Web sites may not cost money, but it can cost a lot of time and also prove frustrating and sometimes unsuccessful (especially when a company’s internal site search engine is not very robust or does not exist at all and leaves you browsing through titles chronologically). On the other hand, searching for press releases through a database vendor such as LEXIS-NEXIS, while very efficient, can also be expensive. Northern Light might offer a good compromise — the search itself is free, and most full-text press releases are available for a nominal charge.

If you decide to look at research firm Web sites, try the following URLs for significant findings from recent research:

Jupiter Communications
http://www.jupitercommunications. com/company/pressreleaselist.jsp

Forrester Research
http://www.forrester.com/ER/Press/ ForrFind/0,1768,0,FF.html

Gartner Group
http://gartner3.gartnerweb.com/ public/static/aboutgg/pressrel/pr.html

International Data Corporation (IDC)
http://www.idc.com/Press/release.stm

Giga Information Group
http://www.gigaweb.com/Marketing/home.asp?intGContextID=15&strMode=newsroom1

META Group
http://www.metagroup.com/

ActivMedia Research
http://www.activmediaresearch.com/free_newsroom.html

Nielsen/NetRatings
http://63.140.238.20/press_releases.asp?country=north+america

WebSideStory StatMarket
http://www.websidestory.com/content.cfm?Pg=3#Global%20Internet%20Statistics

Yankee Group
http://www.yankeegroup.com/webfolder/yg21a.nsf/webpress
 

Approach #2: Research Mentioned in Articles
Try to find mentions of primary research in news articles. There are two main ways to do this: searching aggregated business news databases, or searching the Web-based archives of print and online publications in which research mentions will most likely appear. The first way may not work well, because most of the important Internet Economy publications are not covered in major business databases. For a more effective approach, go directly to the Web sites of Internet Economy publications. Although slow, this approach will probably find the information you need. The Web sites of Internet Economy publications contain archives of previously published articles, usually accessible through robust internal search engines. I recommend the following sites:

Industry Standard
http://www.thestandard.com/

Business 2.0
http://www.business20.com/content/research/numbers/

NUA Internet Surveys
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/

CyberAtlas
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/

Internet World
http://www.internetworld.com/

E-Commerce Times
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/search/

E-Business World from IDG.net
http://www.e-businessworld.com/

Red Herring
http://www.redherring.com/

InfoWorld
http://www.infoworld.com/researchtools/search_f.html

Interactive Week
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/

EcomWorld
http://www.ecomworld.com/

Digitrends and Ebiz Daily
http://www.digitrends.net/

E-retail.net
http://www.e-retail.net/

E-business Strategy from Advisor.com
http://www.advisor.com/whome.nsf/w/ZEBM

Iconocast e-zine (Internet Marketing)
http://www.iconocast.com/archive.html

FreePint newsletter (for Internet researchers)
http://www.freepint.co.uk/

E-commerce Guide Trends
http://ecommerce.internet.com/opinions/
 

Approach #3: Quantitative E-Commerce Research Aggregators
You can also visit the Web sites of quantitative information aggregators. These sites pull together research published by several different firms. Some sites also publish summaries of their own internal analysis efforts.

EStats from eMarketer
http://www.emarketer.com/estats/welcome.html
Click on eStatStore for individual statistics reports, but be careful, many of the free statistics available from the store are outdated.

Metrics archive from The Industry Standard
http://www.thestandard.com/research/metrics/
Excellent resource. Also, go to http://www.thestandard.com/research/metrics/display/0,2799,9801,00.html for an article by Maryann Jones Thompson entitled “Tracking the Internet Economy: 100 Numbers You Need to Know” (September 13, 1999).

CommerceNet Research Center
http://www.commerce.net/research/stats/stats.html
Some useful statistics here.

HotStats from DeepCanyon
http://www.deepcanyon.com/b/numbers/current.htm
Has some unique content not available through other sites.

Fact sheet about Internet Economy from Cyveillance
http://www.cyveillance.com/resources/facts.asp
Aggregates others’ primary research, but though it lists its sources, it does not specify source publication dates. Use with caution.

Ralph Wilson’s E-CommerceResearch Room
http://www.wilsonweb.com/research/
Not a QER aggregator per se, but it links to e-commerce articles, books, etc.

eCommerce Info Center
http://www.ecominfocenter.com/
Similar to Ralph Wilson’s E-Commerce Research Room, but more difficult to navigate.

Northern Light’s E-Commerce Special Edition
http://special.northernlight.com/ecommerce/index.html
Lists some useful e-commerce links.

@Brint.com
http://www.brint.com/Elecomm.htm
Offers a listing of e-commerce links and resources.

AllNetResearch
http://www.allnetresearch.com/
A market research reseller. If you want to order a primary market research report (and you have a lot of money to spend), go to this site first.
 

Approach #4 — Universities, Nonprofits, and Government Agencies
The last approach we will cover involves tapping quantitative research available for free through university research centers, nonprofit associations, or government agencies.

One of the best sources of free quantitative e-commerce research is the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce at the University of Texas. Their most recent report, “Measuring the Internet Economy,” is an excellent resource for historical market data and trend projections in the e-commerce industry. To access the report, go to http://www.internetindicators.com/.

Try also the eLab at Vanderbilt University. There are several free research papers available for download here: http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/papers.html.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development publishes its own Internet and Electronic Commerce indicators. See http://www.oecd.-org/dsti/sti/it/cm/.

The U.S. federal government publishes a few e-commerce reports. One recent report, the “Digital Economy 2000,” mentions several quantitative e-commerce studies conducted by market research firms. The report is available for download at http://www.ecommerce.gov/.

The federal government also collects a limited amount of primary data. The Census Bureau publishes estimates of U.S. retail e-commerce sales as part of their Monthly Retail Trade Survey. Go to http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/current.html for the most recent report.
 

The Future of Quantitative E-Commerce Research
As the e-commerce industry matures, the U.S. government will probably take a larger role in data-collection    efforts. This will lead to greater standardization and a lessening reliance upon research conducted by for-profit firms. As a result, research report prices could drop and report quality improve. Until then, however, information professionals will need to locate quantitative e-commerce information indirectly, and maintain a healthy skepticism of the information once it’s found.

1. CREC, “Measuring the Internet Economy,” June 2000, www.internetindicators.com.
 
 

E-COMMERCE JARGON: A PRIMER

ASP: Application Service Providers. Companies leasing access to software applications via the Internet (instead of selling or licensing software applications for installation on the user’s hard drive). ASPs generally follow a B2B business model, although in the future, consumer-oriented ASPs may prevail.

B2B: Business-to-Business. Any Internet business that sells its products or services to other businesses.

B2C: Business-to-Consumer. Any Internet business that sells its products or services to consumers for their own use.

B2G: Business-to-Government. Any Internet business that sells products or services to government agencies.

Back-End: The programs and applications that support the functionality of the front-end Web site.

Bricks-and-Mortar: Businesses with physical locations (often refers to traditional firms without active e-commerce strategies).

C2C: Consumer-to-Consumer. Any Internet business that provides a means for consumers to sell products or services to other consumers (such as e-Bay).

Clicks-and-Mortar: Businesses with both physical locations and Internet sites (usually refers to e-tailers or to the e-tailing strategy of a formerly traditional firm).

CRM: Customer Relationship Management. This refers to the whole customer experience with a company or a Web site, not just customer satisfaction after a sale. 

E2E: Exchange-to-Exchange. Any Internet company that facilitates the interaction or integration of two or more B2B marketplaces.

E-Marketplace: An Internet marketplace in which businesses in the same industry (usually) come together to buy and sell products or services.

ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning. This refers to business-wide process planning and integration. The Internet is often employed to make ERP more efficient. 

E-Tailers: Internet retailers who generally follow a B2C business model.

Front-End: What people see when they go to the Web site — the interface and the  site’s functionality (what it does).

ISP: Internet Service Providers. Companies providing access to the Internet (such as AOL).

Mission-Critical: Something necessary for the functioning of business operations.

P2P: Peer-to-Peer. Any Internet company that enables individuals to exchange resources (such as computer files) amongst themselves without involving a centralized control system. 

Pure-Play: A company that only conducts business online (an e-tailer without a physical store presence would be called a “pure-play”).

Scalable/Scalability: Usually refers to the ability of a software application to expand as a business grows or a Web site’s traffic volume increases. 

Traffic: The volume of hits a Web site receives (the number of times people visit a Web site).
 

The Big Picture
It sometimes helps to consider the structure of how the Internet Economy works before one tries to deal with quantitative e-commerce information. The CREC group at the University of Texas developed a conceptual framework particularly well-suited for this purpose. Their framework breaks down the Internet Economy into four layers: infrastructure, applications infrastructure, intermediary, and commerce (see Table 1). 

Table 1: Internet Economy Conceptual Frame

Internet Economy Layer Layer 1 - Internet Infrastructure:  
Companies that provide the enabling hardware, software, and networking equipment for Internet and for the World Wide Web
Layer 2 - Internet Applications Infrastructure:  
Companies that make software products that facilitate Web transactions; companies that provide Web development design and consulting services
Layer 3 - Internet Intermediaries: Companies that link e-commerce buyers and sellers; companies that provide Web content; companies that provide marketplaces in which e-commerce transactions can occur Layer 4 - Internet Commerce: Companies that sell products or services directly to consumers or businesses.
Types of Companies Networking Hardware/Software Companies
Line Acceleration Hardware Manufacturers
PC and Server Manufacturers
Internet Backbone Providers
Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
Security Vendors
Fiber Optics Makers
Internet Commerce Applications
Web Development Software
Internet Consultants
Online Training
Search Engine Software
Web-Enabled Databases
Multimedia Applications
Market Makers in Vertical Industries
Online Travel Agents
Online Brokerages
Content Aggregators
Online Advertisers
Internet Ad Brokers
Portals/Content Providers
E-Tailers
Online Entertainment and Professional Services
Manufacturers Selling Online
Airlines Selling Online Tickets
Fee/Subscription-Based Companies
Examples Cisco
AOL
AT&T
Qwest
Adobe
Razorfish
Proxicom
Oracle
e-STEEL
Travelocity e-Trade
Yahoo!
ZDNet
Amazon.com
American Airlines
Pets.com
Dell
 
Source: Based on "Measuring the Internet Economy," Center for Research in Electronic Commerce, University of Texas, June 6, 2000, www.internetindicators.com.
 


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