Online Shoppers Reach Record Levels
11 February 2008 at 3:01 pm
More than 85% of the world’s online population has used the Internet to make a purchase — increasing the market for online shopping by 40% in the past two years — according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on Internet shopping habits.
Globally, more than half of Internet users have made at least one purchase online in the past month, according to Nielsen.
Jonathan Carson, President, International, Nielsen Online says the Internet is no longer a niche technology — it is mass media and an utterly integral part of modern life. Almost no aspect of life remains untouched by online media.
When The Nielsen Company conducted its first global survey into Internet shopping trends two years ago, approximately 10% of the world’s population (627 million) had shopped online.
Within two years, this number has increased by approximately 40 percent (to 875 million).
Among Internet users, the highest percentage shopping online is found in
South Korea, where 99% of those with Internet access have used it to shop, followed by the UK (97%), Germany (97%), Japan (97%) with the U.S. eighth, at 94 percent.
Globally, the most popular and purchased items over the Internet are Books
(41% purchased in the past three months), Clothing/Accessories/Shoes (36%), Videos / DVDs / Games (24%), Airline Tickets (24%) and Electronic Equipment
(23%).
Among Germany’s Internet users, 55 percent said they bought books, 42 percent had bought Clothes/Accessories/Shoes and one in four had purchased Music/Videos/DVD’s in the past three months.
During the same period, among Internet users in the UK, 45 percent bought
books online, followed by Videos/DVDs/Games (44%), Clothing/Accessories/Shoes
(38%), Music (37%) and one in four Internet shoppers also purchased and Airline tickets/Reservations online.
Among U.S. Internet users in the past month, 41 percent bought
Clothing/Shoes/Accessories, 38 percent bought books and one in three Internet
shoppers bought Videos/DVDs/Games.
The number of Internet consumers buying books over the Internet has
increased seven percent in the past two years but the biggest increase has been in Clothing / Accessories / Shoes which increased from 20 percent to 36
percent.
More than 70 percent of Indians and more than 60 percent of Irish and UAE
Internet users said they bought airline tickets/reservations on the Internet
in the last three months, making travel the fourth most popular shopping
category on the web.
One in four global Internet users bought DVDs/Videos online in the last three months, with UK users topping the list (44%), followed by South Africans (38%). The U.S. was fifth at 31 percent.
Payment Methods for Internet Shopping
Credit cards are by far the most common method of payment for online
purchases — 60 percent of global online consumers used their credit card for
a recent online purchase, while one in four online consumers chose PayPal. Of
those paying with a credit card, more than half (53%) used Visa.
Turkish online shoppers (who represent the economic elite in that country)
topped global rankings for credit card usage (91%) for online purchases
followed by 86 percent of Irish online shoppers and 84 percent of Indian and
UAE online shoppers.
While Latin and Asian online shoppers are also more likely to use credit cards than any other form of payment, debit cards are most popular among UK (59%) and U.S. (40%) online shoppers.
Selecting Online Shopping Sites
Recommendations from fellow consumers — whether they are people they know or fellow online shoppers — play an enormous role in the decision-making
process.
The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last year means that this reliance on word of mouth, over other forms of referral, looks set
to increase.
