eCommerce Platforms Evaluation Framework for Government

The international trade flow of e-commerce goods have reached unprecedented volumes. Ensuring undisrupted flow of cross-border eCommerce goods has become one of the top priorities for customs administrations around the world. Customs has a role in safeguarding public values such as safety and security, revenue collection, and stimulation of the economy. Customs administrations are now looking into innovative ways to be able to fulfil their duties for controlling the trade flows while at the same time not hindering trade. But in a broader sense, other government agencies also have responsibilities for safeguarding public values such as product and consumer safety or sustainability and are currently confronted with these eCommerce flows. While eCommerce is a phenomenon that is widely studied in business literature, it is largely unexplored both in research and practice how governments can understand and engage with these eCommerce developments. In this study we focus on the issue revenue collection related to cross-border eCommerce goods. Empirically, our paper builds on insights from the PROFILE EU project, which focuses on the use of data analytics for customs. Theoretically we build on research on control mechanisms in eCommerce platforms and digital trade infrastructures. We present an eCommerce platforms evaluation framework for customs. The evaluation framework consists of two distinct perspectives (i.e. a data analytics and a partnership perspective) that customs can explore when defining their engagement strategies with eCommerce platforms. We limited our study to the interactions of customs with eCommerce platforms and the issue of revenue collection. Further research can study the safeguarding of a wider range of public values by a range of government organisations to account for effects of the vast growth in international flows of goods via eCommerce platforms, such as monitoring product safety and sustainability effects.