Rapport d'enquête sur l'adoption du commerce électronique par les entreprises québécoises en 2001

Are Québec entreprises shifting toward e-business? It is with a view to finding answers to this question that, in 2000, the Institut de la statistique du Québec set up a new survey on the adoption of e-commerce by Québec enterprises. Changes were made to the 2001 edition of the survey. It was decided that small firms with fewer than 5 employees would be excluded from the survey population and that those with 200 employees and over would be included in order to enhance the quality of new estimates regarding the value of electronic sales. The scope of the survey was substantially broadened by broaching several new subjects.

The objectives of the 2001 edition of the survey are especially :

• to monitor the adoption of the computer, the Internet, the Web and electronic transactions by enterprises with 5 to 9 employees and those with 10 to 199 employees;
• to measure the adoption of several other information technologies, including intranet and extranet, within these two types of enterprises and those with 200 employees and over;
• to verify to what extent enterprises are using the Internet for various business needs such as competition follow-up and targeted one-on-one marketing;
• to study the functional capabilities of Québec business websites: receipt and payment of orders, online customer service, etc.;
• for the first time in Québec, to gather information on the value of electronic sales in the private sector, especially as regards sales distribution with regard to clientele type and location;
• to determine the main advantages of e-commerce as well as any factors hindering its development.

As in 2000, the definitions used to measure the adoption of e-commerce are those of the OECD. The results were broken down into three categories of business size (5 to 9 employees; 10 to 199 employees; 200 employees and over) and five sector-based groupings representative of the entire private sector.