Wholesale and retail trade, breakdown of turnover by product

Enterprise
In the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) an enterprise is the smallest combination of legal entities that is an organizational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision making.

Turnover/sales
Turnover is defined as the sum of remuneration for rendering of services to customers and sales of merchandise, and gross income from other activities. Rental income, commissions and special taxes are included, while subsidies and profits from sales of business assets are not. VAT is not included in the statistics.

Merchandise
Merchandise are goods bought and resold with no added value.

Retail
Retail trade comprises businesses engaged in the sale of new and used merchandise predominately for personal use or private households, from permanent shops or market place sites, or by mail order. Further a condition for being classified as retail sale is that the business is selling in its own name and for its own account. Also grouped here are businesses engaged in auction trading or commission sales to private persons and households, i.e. sales for the account of a third party, but under their own name.

Wholesale trade
Wholesale trade comprises businesses engaged in the resale of new and used merchandise under their own name and for own account and commission sales, i.e. sales under their own name but for the account of third parties to dealers and to farms, industrial firms, building and construction firms and other businesses that use the goods in their business activities, including schools, public administration, health and other social institutions, etc. Also grouped here are businesses engaged in the export of purchased goods, resale for own account of imported goods and sales and purchasing cooperatives.

Wholesale on a fee or contract basis
Wholesale on a fee or contract basis comprises businesses engaged in negotiating sales for others by accepting orders or closing sales in their name.

The Standard Industrial Classification used in Statistics Norway (SIC2007) is based on the EU standard NACE Rev. 2 and the UN standard industrial classification ISIC Rev. 4.

The groups of product
The groups of product which is used in this survey is based on CPA 2008 (Classification of products by activity).

Name: Wholesale and retail trade, breakdown of turnover by product
Topic: Wholesale and retail trade and service activities

Division for Structural Business Statistics

Eurostat requires a breakdown of turnover by product every 5th year for the divisions 45 Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, 46 Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles and 47 Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles (SIC2007). This corresponds to industry divisions 50, 51 and 52 according to the previous industrial classification SIC2002.

Division 50 was published for 2005, division 51 for 2003, and division 52 for 2007. The first publishing after new industrial classification was for division 46 with reference period 2008. Division 45 was published for the reference period 2010, and division 47 for the reference period 2012.

The statistics are reported to EUROSTAT.

Primary data and the compiled statistics are stored temporarily in the programming language SAS, and stored permanently as text-files.

Wholesale and retail trade, breakdown of turnover by product, gives a view of the turnover on merchandise sold for different industry classes and groups of product according to the CPA codes 2008 (Classification of products by activity).

The statistics conform with the EU Council regulation on structural statistics. The statistics were first published for 1985, and have been published in the present form since 2008.

Users include for instance public and private sector agencies, and organizations. Other users include the National accounts and the Research department of Statistics Norway. The statistics are also used in the Consumer price index and the Index of household consumption of goods.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar.

The statistics conform with the National accounts and other statistics of Statistics Norway, in terms of definitions and industrial classifications, including the annually Wholesale and retail trade structural statistics, the bimonthly Wholesale and retail trade sales statistics and the monthly Index of retail sales.

The Statistics Act, paragraphs 2-2 and 2-3

EU Council Regulation No 58/97 of 20 December, 1996.

The statistics of industry G Wholesale and retail trade are organized according to the standard industrial classification (SIC2007) and include the industry divisions:

45 Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles

46 Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles

47 Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles

The EU's structural regulation primarily requires statistics at the enterprise level.

Data were obtained from a questionnaire. Turnover is obtained from the Wholesale and retail trade structural statistics.

The population consists of all enterprises in the relevant industry divisions with registered activity in the reference year. The population is divided into subpopulations, called strata, after criteria like industrial classification. In some of the strata, all enterprises are always included in the sample. From the remaining strata, a representative selection of enterprises is drawn. These enterprises are also part of the sample of the Wholesale and retail trade structural statistics. From the enterprises in the sample, we receive turnover, and turnover by product. For the remaining enterprises, turnover is obtained from the Wholesale and retail trade structural statistics. This detailed survey of accounting data form the basis for the estimation of the financial structures of the different industries.

The questionnaires are sent out some months after the end of the statistical year, with a response deadline of four or five weeks. The enterprises that do not respond on the first letter will be given reminders in writing for about a further six months from the first deadline.

Arithmetic and logical operators check for errors and internal consistency of questionnaires in the sample. The particularly critical items are industry code, total turnover and turnover from sale of merchandise. It is also very important that the sum of turnover by product equals the total turnover from sale of merchandise. The turnover is compared with the turnover of the Wholesale and retail trade structural statistics, and different registers (the Register of Annual Company Accounts and the VAT-register). If necessary, the respondents are consulted.

Essentially no variables are estimated for enterprises in the sample. However, some enterprises have not allocated the total turnover for the various product groups. For these enterprises turnover for the various product groups is calculated from the other enterprises with the same industry in the sample. For the rest of the population (i. e. enterprises which are not part of the sample), we have estimated the figures.

If one enterprise alone stands for more than 90 per cent of the value, or two enterprises stands for more than 95 per cent of the value, the figure will not be published. The reason being the risk of identification in that the figure can be traced back to the respondent.

A Retail trade earnings survey was published in 1986 and 1996, and a Wholesale trade earnings survey was published in 1985 and 1998. These surveys also included gross earnings on merchandise sold. It is possible to compare the results of the surveys of 1985, 1986, 1996 and 1998 with the results of the survey of 2005 for some subclasses and product groups. But it is somewhat difficult to compare the results, because the surveys of 1985 and 1996 used a different industrial standard (ISIC). The product groups can also be somewhat different for the surveys. The definition of turnover from merchandise sold is also different in the surveys.

The results of a statistical survey will as a rule contain some measurement and processing errors. Measurement errors occur when the provider of the data gives erroneous answers due to forgetfulness, misunderstanding of the question etc.

Processing errors are errors from coding or errors that occur during the transferring of information from the questionnaire to the machine-readable medium or during editing.

Non-response will always be a factor in form-based surveys. This is because some respondents either do not return their forms or return them incompletely filled out. The enterprises that do no not return their forms are treated like the enterprises outside the sample.

Sampling errors is the uncertainty that occurs when the figures are produced on the basis of a sample of data, and not the whole population. The sampling error is the expected deviation between the result of the sample and the result if the whole population were examined.

Imbalances in the sample (e.g. misleading stratification) can cause errors for the variables for which information has not been obtained for all units in the population. Statistics Norway assumes explicitly by the imputation that enterprises outside the sample have the same commodity distribution as enterprises in the sample.

In the Wholesale and retail trade, breakdown of turnover by product, the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises, the Register of Annual Company Reports in Brønnøysund, the VAT Register and the Register of Employees and Employers (the AA Register) are used in order to define the population and help collect the necessary data.

Errors in these administrative registers - like time gaps in registration, incorrectly identified unit characteristics etc. may therefore be a potential source of uncertainty in the statistics and may for instance have an impact when dividing the population into adequate strata.