3.11 E-commerce

E-commerce gives businesses the opportunity to make improvements to their internal processes, shorten their supply chains and reduce the cost of processing transactions.� It lowers search costs by increasing access to, and lowering the cost of, information, for both business and consumers.�

How does the UK perform?

The DTI�s Business in the Information Age: An International Benchmarking Study 2001 shows that 49 per cent of UK businesses either allow their customers to order on-line, or order from their suppliers on-line themselves.� Of the G7 countries, this is behind the US, Germany and Canada (Chart 3.11.1).� In terms of on-line payment, 27 per cent of UK businesses either allow their customers to make payment on-line or pay their suppliers themselves on-line.� This places the UK behind only Germany in comparison to its G7 competitors.� For both measures of on line trading, the UK�s level of activity is lower than it was last year.