E-Shopping Around the World
The news is optimistic but the e-commerce industry needs to address security concerns, an annual global report finds.
The news is optimistic but the e-commerce industry needs to address security concerns, an annual global report finds.
Three years worth of data, 37 countries, 42,000 interviews, and the results can be summarized rather quickly: While global Internet usage has grown slightly (up from 31 percent in 2001 to 34 percent in 2002), the proportion of users making a purchase has remained unchanged at 15 percent. However, an increase in the number of people online has helped to ensure that e-commerce is growing – the growth in Internet usage/penetration means that more people (in real terms) are shopping online.
The findings come from an annual report by Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), which analyzes Internet penetration, e-commerce penetration, products purchased online, reasons for not purchasing products online, and e-commerce spending among the 37 evaluated countries.
The report found that the biggest impediment to e-commerce is security, which those who have not shopped online cite as a serious obstacle. Almost one-third (30 percent) of Internet users who have not shopped online stated that they didn’t want to give credit card details (up by 5 percent from 2001) and 28 percent cited general security concerns. Germany, as in 2001, was the most reluctant nation to provide credit card details (73 percent).
Security concerns have been evident in the reports over the last three years. Arno Hummerston, head of TNS Interactive Solutions, Worldwide said that their research has highlighted security issues as the main reason for people choosing not to purchase online, yet the industry seems to have done little to address these concerns. “Although some of these concerns are probably driven by a reluctance to shop across borders and a mistrust of new dot-com brands, in the current global economic climate it is particularly important for the e-commerce industry to put users’ minds at ease.”
Who’s shopping?
Where are they from?
What are they buying?
Meanwhile, comScore Media Metrix is helping to spread some e-commerce optimism with reports that total online sales for the second quarter of 2002 set a record of $17.5 billion – a gain of 41 percent over 2001’s figures. Online travel grew 46 percent to $7.8 billion, another record level, and non-travel sales rose 28 percent to $9.7 billion.
“With few other sectors of the economy turning in double-digit growth, the Web continues to offer compelling opportunities as a sales and marketing channel,” said Stephen Kim, senior vice president of the comScore Media Metrix division of comScore Networks.
Further analysis from comScore Media Metrix reveals: