1.7 Growth of Ecomm

Both the American and the British studied the behavior and growth in all above eComm types and found the following results. In the following paragraphs, a description of each one of the above types will be presented and the results of the American and British surveys will be discussed.

Figures published by the U.S Census Bureau (E-Stats) provided figures of e-commerce activity in key sectors of the U.S. economy for 2006. Underlying data are collected in four separate surveys from approximately 137,700 manufacturing, wholesale, service, and retail businesses. The data show that in 2006:

Manufacturers led all industry sectors, with e-commerce accounting for 31.2 percent ($1,568 billion) of total shipments-up substantially for the fifth straight year.

Merchant Wholesalers, including Manufacturing Sales Branches and Offices (MSBOs), ranked second, with e-commerce accounting for 20.6 percent 1,148$ billion) of total sales. Retailers' e-commerce sales increased by 22 percent. As a share of total retail sales, however, e-commerce sales remained modest-2.7 percent ($107 billion), up from 2.4 percent ($87 billion) in 2005.

E-commerce sales for Selected Service Industries, a special group of service industries created for the E-Stats report, increased by 14.9 percent. E-commerce accounted for 1.8 percent ($114 billion) of these industries' total revenues-up from 1.7 percent ($99 billion) in 2005.

1.7 Growth of Ecomm

Results are presented in the following table.

1.7 Growth of Ecomm

Surveys made by the British Office for National Statistics showed that there are significant differences in the rate of adoption of newer ICTs between the largest and smallest businesses.

Supply chain management systems were used by 33.4 per cent of businesses with 1000 or more employees in 2007, compared with only 4.2 per cent of businesses with 10 to 49 employees.

While the largest businesses have led the way with the adoption of ICTs, the smallest businesses have closed the gap with the use of more established ICTs such as Internet access and websites.