• by August 1, 2000

Books, travel/vacations, music CDs and computer software (adult vs. children's) are the top consumer purchases on the Web, according to a new study of consumer online buying patterns and behavior conducted by the Elrick & Lavidge Marketing Research division of Aegis Communications Group, Inc.

The study, entitled "Re-TAILING: Changing the Shopping Channel" examined consumer behavior in 20 different categories of goods sold on the Internet and found that books, travel, music, software and computers represented more than half of the merchandise purchased online.

Sites for durable goods, such as cars, home remodeling/decorating and computer hardware, while often visited, are intentionally used by most consumers to gather information for later offline purchases.

"In fact, online browsing leads to an offline purchase 61% of the time, and 35% of those who do purchase offline buy from the traditional channel (store, catalog, 800#) of the website they had browsed for information," suggested Dr. Ilene Lanin-Kettering, Senior Vice President of Elrick & Lavidge.

"This should send a message to bricks-and-mortar retailers about the importance of a clicks- and-mortar strategy," she suggested.

The research, which polled both Internet shoppers and traditional shoppers, found that slightly more than a quarter of American shoppers expect to actually purchase goods online in the coming year. While most of these are already Internet shoppers, an additional 12% of those who do not currently shop or browse online expect to make an online purchase in the coming year.

On the other hand, more than half of American shoppers expect to browse, shop or gather information for purchases online in the coming year, and four in 10 current non-users intend to start. "This finding suggests that there may be a 'life cycle' or comfort curve to becoming an online purchaser," Dr. Lanin-Kettering said.

Internationally, online shopping is well established in many countries. Among those surveyed by Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) Interactive recently, the US, Japan and Norway have the highest percentage of users who buy online. Two countries, the Czech Republic with 14% online shopping penetration and Portugal with 10%, are unexpected as top online shopping countries.

TNS’s Global eCommerce Report, detailing the state of online consumer shopping in 27 countries, found that the average percentage of population online among all countries surveyed was 27%, 10% of worldwide internet users shop online, 15% of users have considered shopping online, but have changed their minds without buying, 14% plan to shop online within the next six months, and 13% have bought products offline as a result of information gathered online.