How ECDB is bringing transaction-level transparency to global e-commerce trends

The rapid expansion of online retail during the pandemic era has led to an unprecedented surge in digital sales data. However, according to Dr. Friedrich Schwandt, CEO and founder of ECDB, many businesses in the e-commerce sector continue to operate with limited visibility beyond their own platforms and internal analytics. This gap in data accessibility has significant implications for retail decision-making.

The Need for Comprehensive Data

Dr. Schwandt emphasizes that many business leaders are making poor decisions based on data that reflects only their own brand’s performance, without considering broader industry trends or peer performance. “Every day, teams make strategic e-commerce decisions with limited visibility beyond their own business,” he stated. Questions regarding category growth, market maturity, competitive dynamics, or expansion opportunities often rely on incomplete information.

Founding of ECDB

Founded in 2022 by Dr. Schwandt and his partner Hubert Jakob, ECDB aims to build an e-commerce market intelligence platform capable of tracking the market through real transactions rather than relying solely on high-level estimates. Their mission is to provide a transaction-based view of the global e-commerce market during a time when consistent, comparable data is hard to access.

Data Analysis and Insights

Prior to launching ECDB, Dr. Schwandt had a background in data and market intelligence, having helped establish Statista. During the pandemic, he observed the rapid increase in online retail volumes and the fragmented understanding of this growth within the industry. “There was no consistent, transaction-based view of how e-commerce was evolving across markets and retailers,” he explained.

Transaction Data at the Core

Today, ECDB analyzes over 1 billion e-commerce transactions each month across multiple countries, representing approximately 1 to 2 percent of all global online purchases. This scale provides a near real-time view of how categories, retailers, and markets are shifting. The principle that drives ECDB is simple: “Follow the money.”

Processing and Normalizing Data

At the core of ECDB’s operations is transaction data, which represents real purchases and offers a near-real-time view of e-commerce activity. The company processes, normalizes, and enriches this information to ensure consistent analysis across companies, markets, and time periods. Additional inputs, such as company data, traffic data, and clickstream information, are integrated to provide a broader analytical context.

Competitive Analysis for Retailers

For retailers already operating online, the value of ECDB’s data lies in gaining insights into the wider market rather than merely understanding their own performance. Retailers typically have detailed insights into their internal sales and operational metrics, but often lack a clear picture of competitor activity or category momentum in other markets.

Strategic Decision-Making

ECDB’s data enables businesses to track which competitors are scaling particular products, which categories are accelerating internationally, and which brands are gaining traction outside their home markets. This broader context can inform strategic decisions. For instance, a European e-commerce retailer utilized ECDB’s data to analyze category development across several markets. The analysis revealed that a specific product category was expanding significantly faster outside the retailer’s core market, with relatively low competitive intensity. Armed with these insights, the retailer adjusted its assortment strategy, pricing, and market focus ahead of schedule, allowing them to build scale and brand visibility before more competitors entered the category.

Challenges in Building ECDB

Building a business around such intricate analysis comes with its own set of challenges. One of the most significant hurdles was assembling a team capable of navigating the complexities of global e-commerce data. Understanding market structures, product categories, and competitive dynamics requires a blend of technical, analytical, and industry expertise.

Establishing Credibility

Another challenge was establishing credibility in a market already served by long-standing data providers. “In the data business, it is not only about being right, but also about being recognized,” Dr. Schwandt noted. The industry is characterized by varying definitions, methodologies, and approaches to measuring online retail activity. Explaining how ECDB’s transaction-based data works, what it represents, and how it should be interpreted has necessitated ongoing engagement with clients and partners. “Earning credibility meant being transparent, consistent, and willing to explain our approach repeatedly,” he added.

Predicting Market Shifts

While the platform focuses on capturing and structuring data, identifying emerging trends is also a core component of ECDB’s work. By combining real-time transaction data with historical time series, ECDB can detect patterns that might not be visible through isolated snapshots of market activity. These insights are used to generate forecasts at the category, retailer, and market levels, aiming to highlight shifts while they are still developing.

Future Plans for ECDB

Looking ahead, ECDB plans to expand the depth and scope of its analysis by adding more product categories, enabling deeper drill-downs into market data, and incorporating more insights into consumer behavior. The company is also working on data that shows how brands perform across multiple e-commerce channels and platforms. In the long term, Dr. Schwandt envisions extending this approach beyond online retail, aiming to understand how value is created across digital transactions more broadly, including subscription platforms like Netflix and Spotify.

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