Almost two-thirds of those who shop the Internet several times a week are
women, says a new study, and they represent major purchasing power: 32
percent have incomes over $75,000 per year.
Who’s not buying? Students, the young, minorities, and households without
kids.
But according to a study of 2,198 Web users released by Internet customer
service provider PeopleSupport, 63 percent of those
who shop online more than once a week are women.
“The finding that women have so quickly become the Web’s top shoppers should
come as no surprise,” said Lance Rosenzweig, chief executive officer of PeopleSupport. “Women
have traditionally been responsible for 80 percent of household purchases. As
more purchases take place online, women will continue to take charge in that
world as well.”
But women’s dominance as the Web’s most frequent shoppers has taken place
more quickly than expected, Rosenzweig said. In 1995, just 15 percent of Web
surfers were women; today 50 percent of the approximately 100 million
Americans on the Web are women.
“Over nine million women have logged onto the
Internet for the first time in the past year, and 58 percent of all new
Internet users are now women,” said Rosenzweig. “By the year 2002, women will
outnumber men on the Internet by a 3-to-2 margin.”
Overall, the study indicates that 19 percent of Internet users are already
shopping at least once a week, with 5.1 percent shopping online several times
a week. But the study also shows that almost one out of eight Internet users
(15.9 percent) still have never used the Internet for shopping. Of the
remainder, 22 percent say that they shop online once a month, and 43 percent
shop online only a few times a year.
According to the survey, almost one-third (31 percent) of the Internet’s
“supershoppers” — defined in the study as those who shop online several
times a week — are in the 45-54 age group. And, 31.9 percent of them have
incomes over $75,000 per year. Fifty-seven percent of the supershoppers are
married, and 44 percent have kids under the age of 18 living at home. And
while the vast majority (61 percent) of the supershoppers have been using the
Web for over five years, 20 percent have been on for less than three months.
Supershoppers are also among the most demanding when it comes to customer
service: About one out of 10 (11.5 percent) say that they require
telephone-based customer service somewhat or very often. Over one-third of
the Supershoppers (38 percent) say that going off-line to get customer
service through a toll-free number is a “very frustrating experience.” Almost
half of all Supershoppers (42 percent) have to sign off of the Internet to
make that call.
“It’s clear the best customers of online retailers are also those who expect
the most in terms of customer service,” said Rosenzweig. “With online
retailers often paying hundreds of dollars to attract a single new customer,
retaining these supershoppers is crucial to the future success of online
retailers.”
Founded in 1998, PeopleSupport is an outsourcing provider of Internet
customer care for e-commerce companies. The study was conducted with the
assistance of the NPD Group Inc.
