The reports are compiled based on secondary market research.  Secondary research is information gathered from previously published sources. Our reports are solely based on information and data acquired from national and international statistical offices, industry and trade associations, business reports, business and company databases, journals, company registries, news portals and many other reliable sources. By using various sources we ensure maximum objectivity for all obtained data. As a result, companies gain a precise and unbiased impression of the market situation.

Cross referencing of data is conducted in order to ensure validity and reliability.

Furthermore, the source of information and its release date are provided on every chart. It is possible that the information contained in one chart is derived from several sources. If this is the case, all sources are mentioned on the chart.

The reports take into account a broad definition of B2C E-Commerce, which might include mobile commerce. As definitions may vary among sources, exact definition used by the source (if available) is included at the bottom of the chart.

Our reports include text charts, pie charts, bar charts, rankings, line graphs and tables. Every chart contains an Action Title, which summarizes the main idea/finding of the chart and a Subtitle, which provides necessary information about the country, the topic, units or measures of currency, and the applicable time period(s) to which the data refers. With respect to rankings, it is possible that the summation of all categories amounts to more than 100%. In this case, multiple answers were possible, which is noted at the bottom of the chart.

Reports are comprised of the following elements, in the following order: Cover page, preface, table of contents, management summary (summarizing main information contained in each section of report) and report content (divided into sections and chapters). When available, we also include forecasts in our report content. These forecasts are not our own; they are published by reliable sources. Within Global and Regional reports, we include all major developed and emerging markets, ranked in order of importance by using evaluative criteria such as sales figures.

If available, additional information about the data collection, for example the time of survey and number of people surveyed, is provided in the form of a note. In some cases, the note (also) contains additional information needed to fully understand the contents of the respective data.

When providing information about amounts of money, local currencies are most often used. When referencing currency values in the Action Title, the EUR values are also provided in brackets. The conversions are always made using the average currency exchange rate for the respective time period. Should the currency figure be in the future, the average exchange rate of the past 12 months is used.

The reports include mainly data from the last 12 months prior to date of report publication. Exact publication dates are mentioned in every chart.