We've read about teens on the web. We think we know a bunch about women and men, adults, other webbie demos, but the online habits of seniors are somewhat of an enigma.
It turns out, however,
that Americans 55 and older with Web access use the Internet to its full capabilities, 93% shopping online, 95% using email and 90% participating in online sweepstakes or contests. Those are the
results of a recent Greenfield Online study, "Surfing Seniors," which surveyed almost 3,000 seniors and found that the majority is not just dabbling on the Internet. Nearly a third spend 2 to 3
hours each day online, have owned their computers for 4 years or longer, 90% own a color printer and 61% own a scanner.
While the researchers dared not speculate on what percentage of
approximately 32 million Americans over the age of 55 is online, they did find that a whopping 90% of online seniors try "Lady Luck" in cyber sweepstakes and contests on sites like freelotto.com
(visited by 67% of online seniors), luckysurf.com (43%), mypoints.com (42%), iwon.com (38%) and iwin.com (37%).
Also, the study found that one third of seniors that have visited an online
drugstore/pharmacy have made a purchase, but only 21% said they were likely to repeat buy, due to complications with the online drugstores/pharmacies accepting medical insurance.
In addition,
the items seniors most often shopped for are computer software (56%), books (54%) and CDs/tapes (42%); 95% send and receive email, 70% check weather reports, 57% find coupons and special offers and
56% read the news/newspapers.
Just to give you an idea of where to find the demographic said to enjoy that ever-targetable high disposable income.