integrate business partners using EDI and subsequently benefits from large cost reductions, the 

manufacturing and finance industries have not been as successful. The low penetration of 

business partner integration in the manufacturing industry (only 0.4% reporting  a great deal ) 

and in the banking/insurance industry (only 8.5%) is difficult to interpret. In the manufacturing 

sector, the automotive and mechanical engineering industries are known for their deep 

integration of first and second tier partners into the supply chain. In the banking sector, 

electronic data interchange with large customers, as well as electronic inter bank clearing, is an 

established and common solution. These data imply that the integration in these two sectors is 

being done through non Internet based EDI, rather than through Internet solutions. 

In contrast to other countries, German firms do not use and understand the Internet and related e 

commerce applications as a substitute for traditional markets or distribution channels. In contrast 

German establishments use the Internet as a complementary instrument to complete and support 

the already sophisticated market penetration (Table 18). Due to this, the necessity to address only 

new markets is not that important because national and international markets are still objects of 

market penetration (only 7.5% use the Internet to address new markets only). A high 75.8% of 

German firms reported using Internet capabilities to address existing distribution channels, while 

none reported using the Internet to reduce or replace traditional distribution channels.

Consequently, following a multi channel strategy, the Internet does not compete directly with 

other distribution channels (only 16.7% affirm this) as in other countries and is not able or useful 

to replace existing channels (0.0%).  

TABLE 18  How Establishments Use the Internet to Sell Products and Services 

Banking/ 

Manufacturing

a

Wholesale/Retail 

Distribution

a

Insurance

a

Total

a

 GER 

Global

b

GER 

Global

b

GER 

Global

b

GER 

Global

b

Addresses new markets only 

0.0 

23.2 

9.0 

12.2 

0.1 

12.6 

7.5 

15.3 

Addresses traditional 

90.9 38.8  73.3  47.8 84.5  33.4 75.8 44.1 

distribution channels only 

Competes directly with 

traditional distribution 

9.1 25.7  17.8  26.2 15.1  42.3 16.7 27.4 

channels 

Replaces traditional 

0.0 12.2 

0.0  13.8  0.3  11.8  0.0 13.2 

distribution channels 

Notes:

a

Responses were weighted based on the total number of establishments by employee size within the sector for each 

country.  

 b 

Consists of weighted survey responses in 10 countries combined: United States, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, France, 

Denmark, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Japan.   

Source:  CRITO Global E Commerce Survey, 2002 

In the last few years, German industry has developed into an intensive ICT using e economy 

(Table 19). The percentage of firms using online sales in the B2B area in Germany is nearly 

thrice as high (34.0%) as the global sample (12.9%). Both the manufacturing (19.3%) as well as 

the retail/wholesale (40.5%) industries are intensive adopters and users of B2B commerce. On 

the other hand, the importance of B2C commerce in Germany (11.5%) is not much higher than 

the average of the global sample (7.1%). Consequently, even in the retail/wholesale industry only 

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