E-Shoppers Crowd the Digital Malls
Online shopping opens the holiday season up 24 percent.Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service
Online shoppers have spent 24 percent more this holiday season than last year because they are generally more experienced and comfortable purchasing from e-tailers, comScore Networks says.
Nontravel online consumer spending reached $9.75 billion between November 1 and December 2, as online shoppers bought a wider variety of products and also showed more willingness to spend on pricier items than during the same period last year, according to the Reston, Virginia market research firm.
Some categories are outpacing the overall market, such as sport and fitness, where spending is up 59 percent; furniture, appliances and equipment (up 50 percent); and apparel and accessories (up 37 percent), according to comScore. Overall, spending growth should remain steady at 24 percent through the end of December, the firm said.
Big Buyers Nurtured
As the holiday season progresses, e-tailers should know that not all shoppers are created equal. Reporting results from a study conducted between June and August, NetRatings' Nielsen/NetRatings said last week that 18 percent of online shoppers generate 46 percent of total spending. Consequently, e-tailers need to identify these buyers, which Nielsen/NetRatings calls "most valuable purchasers" or MVPs, and come up with ways to attract, retain, and reward them.
The typical MVP uses comparison shopping Web sites heavily, tends to have a higher income than less-active buyers, and has a broadband connection to the Internet, the New York market research firm said. Across all online buyer segments, the preferred comparison shopping Web site is eBay's Shopping.com, followed by Yahoo Shopping, Shopzilla, and Microsoft's MSN Shopping, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
Despite the growth in online spending, at least one veteran online shopper is feeling less satisfied than a year or two ago. Bill Rubin, who has been shopping online for about ten years, finds that, in general, e-tailers' shipping services aren't as good as they used to be. He also has had some negative experiences recently with some major e-tailers that have partially filled his orders and failed to communicate with him about the status of those orders.
Despite being generally less happy with e-tailers, Rubin finds himself buying more than in the past, mainly because he's interested in getting good deals on quality products, and he finds online shopping is ideal for this endeavor. Because he's Jewish, his online buying patterns don't change much during the holiday season. "The stuff Ia??m buying is basically deals I find, and not so much buying gifts," he said.
Addressing Security Worries
Recent consumer surveys have found that a sizable chunk of Internet users are bypassing online shopping altogether out of concern over security and privacy, but Rubin isn't among them.
"[Those concerns] are sort of overblown," said Rubin, who works in the IT industry in New York. "The only time Ia??ve had my credit card stolen was at a hotel somewhere."
Meanwhile, in an attempt to attract more users, MSN Shopping has begun delivering eBay listings, according to the official MSN Shopping blog. "This addition enables our users to enjoy a significantly expanded selection including items that are up for sale via auctions," wrote Shailesh Prakash, MSN Shopping lead program manager, last week.
To enable MSN Shopping to carry eBay listings, Microsoft has expanded the site's software platform and boosted its server infrastructure, Prakash wrote.
"Inventory on eBay is constantly changing and in order to bring our consumers the freshest catalog of choices possible, we parse, load, classify and match the tens of millions of eBay items on a daily basis," he wrote.