On-Line Shopping vs. On-Line Buying

Have you wondered why the reported growth in on-line shopping has not produced more credit sales? An important reason is that there is more shopping than buying. A recent study by BizRate over a three-month period revealed that shoppers had abandoned "2-3 shopping carts " over the period. Forty percent dropped out because of costly shipping and handling charges, while 31 percent had changed their minds. Finally, 21 percent gave up because of "slow-loading pages."

Still, on-line buying is accelerating. Data gathered by Harris Interactive and reported by CardTrak show that the number of on-line shoppers has grown by 56 percent from the third quarter of 1999 to the second quarter of 2000. As may be seen in the accompanying chart, on-line shoppers comprised a significantly higher portion of all on-line users in the second quarter of 2000: up from 30.2 percent to 40.2 percent. The on-line survey distinguished between on-line browsers (those who were gathering information but bought off-line) and on-line shoppers; that is, those who actually purchased a good or service on-line. The survey shown for 2000 was conducted on-line with 97,633 adult on-line users over the course of the second quarter of this year.

Printer-Friendly Chart