E-Commerce in the Organic Food Sector: A Comparative Study of Ukraine and China

E-commerce expands farmers’ access to customers, but its financial value depends on the costs of securing and fulfilling sales. Drawing on the resource-based view and transaction cost economics, this study examines how marketing expenditure, video use, and platform choice relate to online revenue and return on sales (ROS). Telephone interviews covered 186 farms: 74 in Ukraine and 112 in China, including 175 certified producers and 11 uncertified comparison farms. Welch’s t-tests, country-specific ordinary least squares regressions with HC3 standard errors, and moderation analysis identify contrasting financial profiles. Mean monthly online revenue is higher in China (USD 12,878.30 versus USD 4,237.30), whereas mean ROS is higher in Ukraine (30.85% versus 17.72%). The ROS difference is 13.13 percentage points (95% confidence interval: 11.43–14.83). Ukraine’s positive marketing coefficient is specification-sensitive and becomes negative in the log model; China’s marketing association is not statistically significant. Video moderation and within-country platform differences in ROS are not supported at the 5% level. Instagram and WeChat cases illustrate personalised communication and integrated purchasing. The findings support separate assessment of sales scale and margin retention, full channel-cost accounting, and controlled trials of marketing practices. Panel data are needed to investigate the mechanisms underlying these associations.