Online, Men Do More of the Shopping

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.

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