It is important to identify the key drivers of e-commerce to allow a comparison between different countries. It is often claimed that e-commerce is
more advanced in the USA than in Europe. These key drivers can be measured by a number of criteria that can highlight the stages of advancement
of e-commerce in each of the respective countries. The criteria that can
determine the level of advancement of e-commerce are summarised in
Table 1.1 and can be categorised as: