By cross-referencing the business tendency surveys with those on the use of information and communications technologies (ICT), some cyclical developments in e-commerce could be tracked. In the retail sector, e-commerce boomed during the 2010s, resulting in tremendous optimism on the part of online retailers. However, as e-commerce became more widespread, it became commonplace: this great optimism, measured continuously from 2014 to the end of 2021, and which peaked during the health crisis, has been eroded over the last three years. For a time in 2022, there were more e-retailers than retailers as a whole reporting cash flow difficulties. At the end of 2024, however, renewed optimism has emerged among e-retailers...