Half of U.S. broadband users say a recent purchase was influenced by the Internet, compared to just 11% who said that TV had influenced them, according to a new study on online shopping. Overall, the
report by market research firm Media-Screen found that consumers are turning to online and offline sources about equally before making purchases. "Influence is broadly distributed across many channels
and no single source dominates the purchase process," stated the study, based on an analysis of more than 1,300 broadband shoppers and covering more than 100 kinds of products. Browsing retail stores
was the single biggest factor influencing a purchase, with 27% citing that activity in the survey. Meanwhile, a combined 27% were influenced by visiting either manufacturer or retail shopping sites,
and 15% by using search engines.
