Online Shopping Snapshot
Published by Barbara Baryenbruch Luhring February 20th, 2008 in 3W News, Barbara Baryenbruch, Barbara Luhring, online retailers, online shopping.Everyday I receive (via subscription) email article summaries concerning online marketing and statistics. Today from eMarketer Daily came the article Online Buying Grows, But How Much?. It features information from a Pew Internet & American Life Project’s latest online shopping survey. The article is worth the read from several standpoints. It highlights the the phenomenal growth of shopping online since 2000:
- The number of US consumers who have purchased online more than doubled from 22% in June 2000 to 49% in September 2007.
- Pew said that number extrapolated to 66% of Americans with Internet access having bought something online.
Of course, the public at large may have sensed this anecdotally, but seeing the numbers gives one a bigger picture. How can any brick and mortar retailer justify NOT having an online store? The old adage “location, location, location” takes on a new meaning in 2008 and I suspect this trend will continue.
One thing, according to Pew, that is holding down online buying is security issues, both real and perceived.
- The research center estimated that the percentage of online buyers would be as much as three percentage points higher, or 69%, if people were not as concerned about about sending personal or credit card information over the Web.
Another issue for online selling seems obvious.
- Broadband was the most significant common characteristic of online buyers compared with non-buyers. More than three-quarters of online buying US consumers had broadband, while little more than one-half of non-buyers did.
Another Pew report I ran across Information Searches That Solve Problems referenced broadband accessibility in an article on how individuals use libraries and the Internet, yet it is of interest to online retailers as well.
- A major focus of this survey was on those with no access to the internet (23% of the population) and those with only dial-up access (13% of the population). This “low-access” population is poorer, older, and less well-educated than the cohort with broadband access at home or at work.
The future exponential growth of online shopping seems to rest on the socioeconomic aspect of broadband accessibility. With talk of recession this may not be an obstacle that is easy to overcome in the short term. However, for retailers who make their goods available via the Internet, they will surely have a leg up in the long term.
I like your post.
Are the subscribed emails via RSS or via a different type of email newsletter?
Where can a retailer go to find out more about putting a store online?
Gregg
The subscriptions I am referring to are sent to my email, though I do receive RSS feeds via my Net News Reader too.
Would-be retailers can contact 3W from this blog or at ideas@3wdesign.com. We provide both turn-key and do-it-yourself solutions for most budgets. There is no better time than now to get started and we’re pretty friendly too!
This is all very interesting. At Traveling Laughs, my humor travel blog (www.travelinglaughs.blogspot.com) I use Feed Burner as a means to offer subscriptions, whether they be via RSS Feeds, a number of other “capture” methods, or e-mail subscriptions. To date, 89% of subscribers still sign up for e-mails rather than “higher tech” options. Could just be my audience, but it is curious.
The numbers are slowly making slight improvements toward RSS, but the Old School still seems to prevail for the majority. We’re learning, though, so KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! You and Gregg are Worthy trail blazers, for sure!
Charlene