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

e-Business in the Retail Sector2 Context and backgroundRetail trade as defined by NACE 52 is the third largest EU-25 NACE division within thenon-financial services economy in terms of value added. Only wholesale trade (NACE 51)and other business activities (NACE 74) are contributing more to the non-financialservices economy in terms of value added. In terms of employment, retail trade is thesecond largest contributor to workforce employment in the EU-25 countries (EuropeanCommission 2006). Due to its importance for the European economy, the retail industrywas studied in 2003 and 2004 by e-Business W@tch 15 ; and in order to analyse recentdevelopments in this economically important industry, retail trade is included in the2007/2008 SeBW.2.1 Sector definition – scope of the studyBusiness activities coveredThe European retail industry covers business activities specified in NACE Rev. 1.1Division 52 which corresponds to NACE Rev. 2 Division 47: ‘retail trade, except of motorvehicles and motorcycles’. The activities are classified into nine groups as shown inExhibit 2.1-1.The first order structuring criterion in NACE Rev. 2 is whether or not retail sale isorganised in store or not-in-store. The second main criterion is whether the trade takesplace in specialised or in non-specialised stores. The not-in-store sales activities arefurther broken down into trade via stalls and markets or other retail trade not in stores.The third structuring criterion is the category of products sold.In terms of NACE distribution, the retail industry in the European Union is dominated bytwo groups: retailers that sell non-food items in store (NACE Rev. 1.1 Class 52.12 andGroups 52.3 to 52.5) and retail sale of food items in store (NACE Rev. 1.1 Class 52.11and Group 52.2). Retailers in the non-food items in store group accounted forapproximately 50% of turnover while the sale of food in store accounted for 44% of totalretail turnover in 2002. The remaining NACE groups are grouped under “other retail” inthis report: retail sales not in-store (NACE Group 52.6) and repair of personal andhousehold goods (NACE Group 52.7) which accounted for 5% and less than 1% ofturnover in 2002 respectively.In order to cover the multi-faceted characteristics of the retail sector and obtain a bestpossible supply chain management overview of the sector, all types of firms from allNACE Rev.2 categories (which includes retail sale of automotive fuel, which is notcovered by NACE Rev. 1, group 52) are included in the study; no category was excluded.15The study report is available at www.ebusiness-watch.org (see "eBiz Studies")22