STATISTICAL EVALUATION OF E-COMMERCE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

In the current study, we conduct a comparative analysis of the European Union countries and the Republic of North Macedonia in terms of the ecommerce development in the period 2010-2021. We identify the place of ecommerce as a key element of business digitalisation. We present the information sources of the indicators for characterising e-commerce and classify them as direct and indirect indicators based on their relation with the e-commerce development. We analyse and compare the dynamics of the indicators for the EU countries and theRepublic of North Macedonia by growth rates and their ratios. We apply an approach where, based on the level of the indicators in 2010 and the change over the period 2010-2021, the countries are classified into four groups – running ahead, lagging ahead, catching up and falling behind. We thus position countries in terms of their prospects for e-commerce development.