The annual E-Commerce Report (formerly known as "Pago Report", first published in 2002) has established itself as one of the most important e-commerce surveys all over Europe because it is the only report based on real transactions instead of interviews. For the comprehensive market survey  30 million real purchasing transactions processed through the platform of Deutsche Card Services were evaluated statistically.
In co-operation with experts from a popular market research institute, purchasing and payment behaviour of consumers from Germany, UK, the rest of Europe, and the non-European countries were analysed using established statistical methods. The result is an comprehensive insight into the status quo in e-commerce concerning purchasing and payment behaviour, non-payment risk and industry specifications.
The unique information is essential for e-commerce merchants and online shop owners. The E-Commerce Report answers several questions for example which payment methods (credit card, direct debit, maestro and giropay) are preferred by customers from different countries.
The increasing media response to the E-Commerce Report showed that there is a great demand for more detailed analyses of certain industry sectors. That is why the first Retail Report has been published in September 2007. In this Retail Report only the purchasing transactions of online retail are analysed. So the characteristic details of this industry can be presented without being interfered by results of the travel and the services sectors.