B2C e-commerce: the Italian market

International Journal of Business Performance Management

Volumn 4, Issue 2-4, 2002, Pages 182-201

  Bertelè, Umberto ^a   Balocco, Raffaello ^a   Gandini, Isabella ^a   Rangone, Andrea ^a  

^a POLITECNICO DI MILANO   (Italy)

Author keywords

B2C; business models; E commerce; performance

Indexed keywords

EID: 33645303688     PISSN: 13684892     EISSN: 17415039     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/ijbpm.2002.000114     Document Type: Article

References (36)

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7. Appendix 1 reports some methodological details of the study.
8. The sites included in the sample meet three fundamental requirements: they feature commerce based on B2C they allow online ordering (through shopping cart, web form or e-mail), irrespective of the payment system (online and/or offline) they are legally located in Italy (domestic sites in addition to foreign sites based in Italy).
9. New companies specially established to operate via internet which often use the online channel only.
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15. The sample includes 100 companies with B2C e-commerce initiatives in Italy and covers 57% of the total B2C e-commerce market with regard to Italian sites and 71% of the TopPlayer turnover (initiatives with a turnover above 2.56 million euro).
16. B2C e-commerce initiatives with a turnover below 2.58 million euro are deemed to be minor. The TopPlayers are initiatives with a turnover above 2.58 million euro.
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21. Order conversion rate is the total number of orders received during a given period divided by the total number of visits during the same period.
22. It should be remembered that the sample is not large enough to be considered statistically significant for each indicator examined in our study; these are sometimes influenced by the specificity of companies. A cautious approach is therefore recommended.
23. Traditional catalogue-based companies are based on mail orders using a paper catalogue. Traditional store-based companies market their products offline through physical shops.
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