Assessing the Financial Vulnerability in a Changing Business Environment: The Case of E-Commerce Industry

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 has created a very challenging business climate for all the industries worldwide. Differently from other sectors, e-business industry, being the least harmed with the new circumstances, has been given a wide range of opportunities to experience the flourishing sales and profitability, particularly at the start of the pandemic. The aim of this study is to assess the short-term and the potential long-term impact of COVID-19 crises on e-commerce. Employing the comprehensive profitability and liquidity ratio analysis for the top five crossborder e-commerce companies in the last ten years (2013-2022), the study provides an indepth understanding of the e-commerce sector financial vulnerability and its response to the changed business climate. The results have revealed the sharp increase in the sales and profitability levels of the assessed companies, thus confirming that COVID-19 had in general a positive impact on the e-commerce industry financial performance, with different extent across the examined firms, which implies that the pandemic has impacted subdivisions of e-commerce asymmetrically. Consequently, the study allows policy makers to identify the distinctive strategies for each area of e-commerce industry.