Comparative analysis of the subjects of the Russian Federation by the level of readiness for the development of online trade

The uneven development of territories and socio-economic levels of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation causes an uneven infrastructure provision, which negatively impacts the creation and development of digital sector platforms and the implementation of end-to-end digital technologies. At present, there is no unified tool for analyzing the infrastructure provision of the national economy that contributes to the development of e-commerce. The purpose of this study was to develop a system of indicators for assessing digital infrastructure and to conduct a comparative analysis of the regions' readiness for the development of online trade. During the research, existing approaches and methods for calculating global e-commerce indices were studied, and an author's methodology for calculating a point-based rating of the quality and accessibility of internet services was proposed. The selected indicators were calculated for fifteen subjects of the Russian Federation, allowing the creation of an overall rating of the regions' readiness for the development of online trade, conducting a comparative analysis of the results, and formulating conclusions and recommendations.