Nearly Half Of All Americans Buy Online
- by April 24, 2001
Findings from the Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive eCommercePulse, collected from a March 2001 online survey of 39,000 Web users, found that eCommerce has hit mainstream, drawing online purchases from 48.2% of all Americans over 18 years old, or 100.2 million people. Furthermore, more than 81.2% of all adults with Web access have made a purchase online since they started using the Internet.
"Online shopping is not trivial when more than 80% of all Web surfers and nearly one out of every two Americans are involved - eCommerce has gone mainstream," said Sean Kaldor, VP of eCommerce at NetRatings.
Online Spending in March 2001:
More than $3.5 billion was spent online in March 2001, jumping 35.6% from $2.6 billion in April 2000. Two product categories accounted for more than half of this growth. Online travel spiked 58.5% to more than one billion dollars in March 2001, while clothing and apparel jumped 122.3% to $368 million.
"Despite challenges in the U.S. economy, online spending is holding strong, even gaining four percentage points from February to March 2001," said Kaldor.
Amazon Leads Top E-Tailers in Purchaser Share:
Amazon led the eCommerce market in March, garnering 15.1% of all online buyers. eBay followed closely with 14.5% of all online purchasers, while BMG Entertainment's share was 4.3%. Barnes & Noble (3.8%) and Columbia House (3.7%) rounded out the top five rankings.
* eBay's unique audience number does not reflect Half.com's traffic. "While Amazon commands much of the attention in e-tailing, eBay attracts nearly as many customers," said Kaldor. "In fact, adding eBay's numbers to its subsidiary Half.com shows it has more customers online than any other merchant."
