ICT and e-Business Impact in the Retail Industry - empirica

e-Business in the Retail Sectorwith 54% compared to 38% of the food stores and 37% of firms in the other retailinggroup (see Exhibit 4.4-3). Retail firms of different sizes are affected on a similar level withslightly fewer small firms reporting an impact. Compared to the USA, European retailfirms report higher levels of competition in the sector due to ICT: 48% in the EU versus37% in the US.Exhibit 4.4-3: Retail firms stating that ICT has an impact on competition in the sector0 10 20 30 40 50 60Retail (EU-7)48Non-food stores54Food stores38Other retailing37Micro (1-9)48Small (10-49)39Medium (50-249)52Large (250+)50USA37The survey was conducted in seven EU Member States (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden,United Kingdom) and in the USA.Base (100%) = companies using computers; N (Retail, EU-7 and USA) = 1151Weighed by employment. Questionnaire reference: F4Source: e-Business Survey 2007Firms that stated that ICT affects competition in the sector were further asked about theextents of this effect. 61% of retail firms said that competition has increased “somewhat”due to ICT; 34% even said that competition had increased “significantly” due to ICT. Thepicture is homogenous across all sub-sectors, firm sizes and in the US. The exceptionsare that only 17% of food stores report that competition has significantly increased due toICT and 78% of food stores think that competition has somewhat increased. More than10% of firms in the other retailing group and 12% of firms in the US even think thatcompetition has decreased due to ICT (see Exhibit 4.4-4).109