Producing statistics on e-commerce and, more broadly, on the digital economy is increasingly important to support decisions by both the private and public sectors. This is a challenge for Pacific Islands Countries, many of which are still at an early stage in the development of e-commerce and associated statistics.

To help address this challenge, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), the Pacific Community (SPC), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have been working together to identify, extract, and consolidate key e-commerce statistics for the Pacific in the Pacific Data Hub, and to present them in the Pacific E-commerce Portal.

By the end of the 2023, the Pacific E-commerce Database reached 50 indicators on the e-commerce enabling environment. It provides an easy-to-access source of information for public and private stakeholders who wish to use evidence to inform their efforts to improve the e-commerce readiness of Pacific consumers and businesses.

Through this project PIFS, SPC and UNCTAD aim to improve the quality and increase the number of the indicators hosted in the Pacific E-commerce Database through the following interventions:

• Update of existing indicators
• Improve data availability for existing indicators
• Increase the number of indicators on the e-commerce enabling environment
• Create indicators on e-commerce transactions
• Improve data visualization