As Christmas nears, convenience drives buyers to web, says eSpending Report
Convenience has shot to the top of online shoppers’ lists as Christmas nears, reports the latest 2002 eSpending Report from Goldman, Sachs & Co., Harris Interactive, and Nielsen/NetRatings. For the week that ended Dec. 13, 39% of consumers surveyed said they were buying on the web to avoid traffic at stores, up 50% from the 26% who cited that reason in early November. The number of consumers who cited low prices as the reason for buying on the web fell from 43% earlier in the season to 33% last week.
"Online consumers have become less sensitive to price than they were a month ago and their disdain for crowds has grown stronger," said Lisa Strand, director and chief e-commerce analyst of Nielsen/NetRatings. "Understanding these attitudinal changes are important for both online and offline retailers who want to refocus their marketing campaign to attract last minute shoppers."
Lack of sales tax continues to be a minor motivator of online buying and even less so as Christmas approaches. Only 21% of consumers last week said they buy on the web to avoid sales tax vs. 27% in early November.
Not surprisingly, the leading categories for online purchases were those associated with gift-giving. Topping the list, in order, are: books, music and videos; apparel and accessories; consumer electronics; and toys and video games. Those categories represent more than two-thirds of online spending.
Toy sales so far this year are 57% above last year, the eSpending Report says. Consumer electronic sales are 47% above last year; books, music and videos are up 23% and apparel is up 10%.
The eSpending Report’s leading categories with spending this year between Nov. 2 and Dec. 13 are:
Books, music and videos/DVDs: $1.864 billion
Apparel: $1.831 billion
Consumer electronics: $1.208 billion
Toys and video games: $1.192 billion.
Online consumer spending increased 26% last week over the week before, the eSpending Report says.
The eSpending Report is based on a weekly national survey of more than 750 online shoppers age 18 or older randomly chosen from Harris Interactive`s online panel of survey respondents.
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