A new survey shows that less than a third of Internet users in the UK
have made purchases online, with 64 percent of men and 80 percent of
women yet to place an order.
The figures, from the latest wave of Fletcher Research’s UK Internet User
Monitor, show that British women are still not eager to shop on the
Internet. Current speculation about the explosion in online shopping in
the UK this Christmas may be premature, the company said.
While more and more Britons came online in 1999 (30 percent of the 15
million with
Internet access did so this year) a high proportion are still cagey
about making online purchases, according to the October 1999 survey of
more than 50,000 Internet users.
Concerns about security continue to be a barrier to buying online with
50 percent
of those polled responding that they are unhappy about giving their
credit card details to online vendors.
However, UK users are
increasingly using the Web as a research tool to make more informed
online and off-line purchasing decisions.
The products that have been most heavily investigated online tend to be
goods or services that cannot be experienced beforehand, Fletcher said.
Travel and holidays, books and CDs are popular choices for both men and
women, while computers remain popular, but a largely male domain.
According to the UK Internet User Monitor, 60 percent of UK Web users
are men, but the male bias is decreasing across all ages. Now the ratio
of men to women is 3:2, down from nearly 2:1 in December 1998.
Among Internet users over the age of 55, women are increasingly coming
online, accounting for 33 percent of that age group, up steeply from a
mere 19 percent in May 1999.
Just under half (40 percent) of UK Web users have a degree compared with
the national average of 12 percent.
Banner advertising is effective, but unpopular, the survey found.
Fifty-nine percent of Web users have clicked on ads, and 34 percent say
ads are irritating.
Users prefer online
classified ads to the traditional newspaper format, the survey found.
Fletcher Research is a UK new media research company, specializing in
producing data and reports on the UK Internet market.
Recent reports
include Dream Machines: Selling New Cars Online; Internet Access
Strategies; The UK Internet Survey 1999; Window Shopping? A Study of UK
Online Retailing; Online Advertising Strategies and Sterling
Services: A Survey of UK Personal Finance Online.
Fletcher Research was acquired by Forrester Research in November 1999,
and
after a four to six-month period of transition will be branded Forrester
UK at the end of the second quarter 2000.
