Web users embrace e-commerceTHE GUARDIAN
http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,513001,00.html
Julia Day
Wednesday June 27, 2001
The Guardian
The widely held perception that consumers are reluctant to buy goods on the
internet is challenged by a report out today.
Datamonitor's third annual interactive consumer survey, Impact 2001, reveals
internet users have become sophisticated, discriminating users of
e-commerce.
However, 50% of Europeans do not use the internet at all.
According to Datamonitor, suppliers have failed to identify and meet the
needs of consumers.
As a result, £11.3bn of e-commerce revenue in Europe is generated by just
14% of online shoppers.
Impact 2001 investigated consumers' attitudes towards new media and
e-commerce, conducting more than 7,500 interviews in the US, UK, France,
Germany, Spain, Sweden and Italy.
According to Datamonitor, the way to get more consumers involved is for
online businesses to be complemented by offline sales channels.
"The internet is very poor at delivering the instant gratification that is
associated with many buying decisions," said Jon Newman, director of
e-commerce at Datamonitor.
"Rather than trying to convince more consumers that they should spend more
of their money online, it may be preferable to offer true multichannel
solutions that allow customers to move seamlessly between online and offline
channels at their own discretion," Mr Newman said.
A new round of deals can be expected to align strong internet and offline
businesses in the near future.
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