Title: Some observations on the US e-commerce trade statistics

Authors: Haoyu Wen; Kai S. Koong; Lai C. Liu

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, Xidian University, 2 South Taibai Road, Chang'an, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China ' School of Economics and Management, Xidian University, 2 South Taibai Road, Chang'an, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China ' College of Business Administration, The University of Texas-Pan American, 1201 W. University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA

Abstract: More and more business transactions are being carried out on the World Wide Web. These data, in the form of monetary amounts are reported by governmental agencies. In the USA, e-commerce data reports are provided and made available to the public by the Department of Commerce. Normally these data sets are provided every quarter and are revised as more accurate information is collected. First, this study deals with the proliferation of e-commerce as a whole and reports on the variety of behavioural trends in the data set. Second, the accuracy of the initial estimates and the revised numbers published each quarter are also examined to determine the magnitude of the changes. Specifically, the MSE, MAE and MAPE of the respective quarters and years are reported and analysed. Global trade experts, decision support model developers, corporate executives, and policy makers will find the outcomes reported to be useful.

Keywords: e-commerce; USA; United States; electronic commerce; trade statistics; government reports; behavioural trends; MSE; MAE; MAPE; mean square error; mean absolute error; mean absolute percentage error.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSS.2015.070693

International Journal of Services and Standards, 2015 Vol.10 No.3, pp.148 - 168

Received: 06 Jun 2015
Accepted: 08 Jun 2015
Published online: 19 Jul 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article