Development of e-commerce in international trade in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus: New opportunities and regulatory challenges

The relevance of this study is determined by the accelerated development of cross-border e-commerce in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus under conditions of digital transformation. This study aimed to identify the structural determinants and regulatory barriers affecting the development of e-commerce in the region under investigation. The methodology was based on a combination of comparative cluster analysis and the typologisation of the selected countries according to the level of digital development and the degree of integration into international digital trade networks. The research proved that digitalisation and market growth, together with regulatory development in this region, do not progress simultaneously. The leaders of digitalisation (Cluster A) use the principle of systemic integration of the platform environment, payment infrastructure, and customs service. The example of the countries in this cluster is a vivid example of a high degree of market saturation: 86% of consumers in Poland buy goods through marketplaces; 14.57% of companies in Romania, by contrast, engage in online sales. The clusters of the active catch-up economies (B) and the limited integration (C), on the other hand, showed the dynamics of transactions despite the lack or absence of regulation: cross-border imports of Moldova (EUR 530 million) indicate a structural imbalance in trade when companies from a given country can import but cannot export. The study has determined that the level of payment maturity is a better determinant of the type of cross-border integration, while in the cluster of active catch-up economies, the customs integration of countries into European Union standards is one-sided in the form of obligations rather than the implementation of facilitation tools. It can be determined that the regulatory regime in the region is characterised not only by the lagging behind of individual countries, but by the structural disintegration of the regulatory system as its components evolve without the necessary coordination between themselves. The practical significance of the study is to use its results by public authorities of the countries in question to design digital trade policies and, by international organisations, as a basis for the development of programmes aimed at supporting the digital integration of the markets of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region