Punctual or aperiodic

The data collection took place between February and September 2013, simultaneously with the data collection of ESA 2012.

The paper questionnaire of the trade margins survey tradehas been sent to companies in the same letter containing the ESA 2012 questionnaire.

The units surveyed could also answer to the survey through internet using a downloaded file that they had to fill and then to upload in the secured portal of responses to surveys conducted by INSEE.

Legal unit

The sampling frame and the survey sample are subsets of those of the ESA 2012; the survey sampling method on trade margins is thus derived from the annual sectorial survey 2012 - the latter being based on a stratified sample according to size classes crossed with business sectors.

The survey sample on trade margins, sized of approximately 4,000 units, is thus composed of legal units belonging to the sample of the ESA 2012 whose main activity corresponded to one of the five subclasses listed in the "Statistics coverage" section.