A new e-commerce study shows that while Internet shoppers are making more big-ticket purchases online, men are still far more likely to let their keyboards
do the shopping.
In a survey, sponsored in part by priceline.com, Opinion Research Corp. International of Princeton, NJ, polled a nationally projectable sample of
1,013 adults by phone over a four-day period in September. Questions covered a range of consumer attitudes toward Internet shopping, as well as actual online shopping activity.
Some of the findings:
- Men (41%) are more likely than women (32%) to buy through the Internet. And
on average, men spend twice as much as women on Internet purchases.
- Households with no children (41%) are more likely to buy online than
households with children (32%).
- Most popular purchases on the Internet include, books (13%), software (13%),
airline tickets (9%), music CDs (8%), stocks (5%), computers & peripherals (5%),
clothing (5%) and videos (4%).
- Among all survey respondents, 64% said they expect to be able to buy things on
the Internet at lower prices than they can buy them today in a store.
- College grads (44%) are more likely to buy on the Net than high school
graduates (27%).
- Four percent of Internet shoppers surveyed said they had tried an auction
service.
Respondents who were aware of and its name-your-own-price
services said they’d also like to be able to name their own price for: TVs,
camcorders and stereos (57%), car insurance (57%), computers (53%), monthly
cable service (49%), credit card interest rates (49%), cruises (46%), rental
cars (44%), long distance telephone service (43%) and home mortgages (38%).
Priceline.com is a patented e-commerce system that lets consumers name their
own price for a range of goods and services, including airline tickets, hotel
rooms and new cars in the New York metro area.