EcommerceBytes-Update, Number 206 - January 06, 2008 - ISSN 1528-6703 
2 of 8 
AuctionBytes Report on Online Buying Survey, Part 1
By Ina Steiner
Why do people shop online? How do they find items, and what factors are important to them in making purchasing decisions? These are some of the questions we set out to explore in our December online-buying survey. Over 900 people took the survey. By aggregating their responses, we hoped to learn more about shopping behavior, and find answers that might be helpful to online sellers who have set up their own storefronts or are looking to do that in the coming year.
Ninety-six percent of respondents reside in North America, and it's important to note that they have a unique perspective: 83% of them sell online.
Survey Highlights:
- A relatively small percentage of respondents said they shopped online primarily for price (6%). Instead, most said the biggest advantages to shopping online versus going to a mall or traditional retailer was the ability to shop at their convenience (45%) and because it was easier to find what they wanted (27%).
- When asked which one factor was most important when deciding where to shop online, top answers were Product Selection (20%), Price (17%) and Security (17%).
- Many said the biggest disadvantages to shopping online was that they couldn't closely inspect the item before purchase (44%), shipping costs (17%) and risk of non-delivery of item (11%).
- When asked what method they employed most frequently to find items, 44% said they used search engines, and 39% said they went directly to a retail website. Only 7% used comparison shopping sites most frequently. When asked to rate various methods by how often they used them to shop online, 65% used Search Engines "frequently" and 25% "sometimes," while 18% used comparison shopping sites "frequently" and 34% "sometimes."
- When asked which services they used to help them find products, 90% said they used Google, followed by Yahoo (22%).
- Sixty-five percent of respondents "sometimes" (33%) or "frequently" (32%) use consumer reviews (such as Amazon Buyer Reviews and eBay Reviews & Guides) to help them make their buying decisions.
- When asked to rate their level of satisfaction with their overall online buying experience, 61% said they were "Very Satisfied," and 36% said they were "Satisfied."
Holiday Spending
Thirteen percent of respondents said they did not shop online this holiday shopping season. Of those, 56% said they did not have a need. Other reasons included "potential for fraud" (10%), "can't closely inspect item before purchase (8%), "hard to find what I want online" (7%), "shipping costs" (5%), "payment methods accepted" (4%), "risk of non-delivery of item" (3%), "slow delivery of item" (2%), "difficulty of returns" (2%), "price" (2%), and "risk of damage during shipping" (1%). No one selected "difficult to ask questions of vendor" as the reason for not shopping online this holiday season.
Eighty-seven percent of respondents did shop online this holiday shopping season. When asked if they spent more money shopping during the 2007 holiday season in total (offline and/or online) than last year, most people spent the same (23%) or less (46%).
When asked what percentage of shopping they did online this year compared to last year, 35% said the same, 46% said they did a larger percentage of online shopping this year compared to last year, and 19% said they did a smaller percentage this year compared to last year.
Sixty-three percent of respondents did 50% or more of their shopping online this holiday shopping.
Types of Products Purchased / Percentage
Books, DVDs, CDs, Video Games: 71%
Clothing, Shoes, Accessories: 49%
Toys, Games, Hobbies: 30%
Consumer Electronics: 28%
Collectibles/Memorabilia: 24%
Home & Garden: 20%
Computers & Networking: 18%
Antiques/Art/Pottery/Glass: 18%
Health & Beauty: 18%
Cameras & Photo: 17%
Food and Wine (including gift baskets): 16%
Jewelry & Watches: 16%
Gift card/gift certificate: 15%
Kitchen: 14%
Office: 13%
Crafts: 11%
Sporting Goods: 11%
Tools/Hardware: 10%
Baby: 8%
Cell Phones: 4%
Game Consoles: 4%
Furniture: 3%
Shopping Research ("Finding")
The survey asked questions about how respondents found items this holiday shopping season.
| Most frequent method of finding items | Percentage |
| Search engines | 44% |
| Went directly to a retail website | 39% |
| Comparison shopping sites | 7% |
| Review sites | 3% |
| Saw offline ads (TV, radio, magazine, newspaper, etc.) | 3% |
| Email ads | 2% |
| Read articles | 1% |
| Saw online ads | 1% |
| Asked someone I know | 0.5% |
| Services used to find products (not mutually exclusive) |
Percentage |
90% |
|
| Yahoo | 22% |
| Shopping.com | 11% |
| PriceGrabber.com | 10% |
| BizRate | 9% |
| MSN | 6% |
| Shopzilla | 6% |
| NextTag | 5% |
| Dealio | 3% |
| TheFind | 1% |
| Become | 0.5% |
| Edeals | 0.2% |
| JellyFish | 0.2% |
| SortPrice | 0.2% |
| Other | 14% |
Shopping Destination
We asked from which types of sites respondents purchased this holiday shopping season.
| Type of Site | Percentage |
| Online auction site (eBay, etc.) | 62% |
| Amazon | 55% |
| Major retail site (Walmart.com, Target.com, Sears.com, etc.) |
50% |
| "Mom and pop" site | 29% |
| Online marketplace (Etsy, eCrater, etc.) |
10% |
| Classified Site | 3% |
| Antique Mall site (GoAntiques, Tias, RubyLane, etc.) |
2.5% |
| Other | 17% |
Shopping Decision-Making
We asked respondents how often they used reviews to help them make their buying decisions.
How often do you use consumer reviews (such as Amazon Buyer Reviews and ebay Reviews and Guides) to help you make your buying decision?
Never: 14%
Rarely: 20%
Sometimes: 32%
Frequently: 33%
Evaluating Shopping Sites
When asked what one factor was most important when deciding where to shop online, top answers were Product Selection (20%), Price (17%), Security (17%), Well known branded site (11%), Ease of transaction (8%) and "I've shopped there before" (8%). The following table shows results when respondents were asked to check all the factors that were important to them when deciding where to shop online.
| Important factors when deciding where to shop online (not mutually exclusive) | Percentage |
| Price | 70% |
| Reasonable shipping costs | 62% |
| Product selection | 61% |
| Ease of transaction | 55% |
| Security | 53% |
| "I've shopped there before" | 43% |
| Well known branded site | 42% |
| Free shipping | 36% |
| Return policy | 33% |
| Reputation for customer service | 32% |
| Payment methods accepted | 29% |
| "My family/friend/colleague recommended it" | 13% |
| Site was reviewed in an article | 10% |
| Small independent site | 5% |
When shopping from a site for the first time, the most important factor respondents looked for were: "I look for the letter "S" in the "http" of the URL before entering private or financial information (33%), Detailed product descriptions (13%), and Site-security seal (13%). The following table shows results when respondents were asked to check all the things they look for before making a purchase.
When you shop from a site for the first time, which of the following things do you look for before making a purchase? (Check all that apply.) |
|
|---|---|
| Detailed product descriptions | 71.3% |
| Detailed product photos | 66.3% |
| I look for the letter "S" in the "http" of the URL before entering private or financial information | 55.9% |
| Payment methods accepted | 52.4% |
| Return policy | 45.9% |
| Terms of sale | 39.9% |
| Site-security seal | 35.4% |
| Customer reviews | 33.3% |
| Published phone number | 31.6% |
| Published physical address | 29.5% |
| About us description | 26.6% |
| Privacy policy | 24.3% |
| Customer testimonials | 14.3% |
| Good-business seal | 9.5% |
| Other | 8.3% |
| Press page to see what articles have been written about the site | 5.3% |
| None of the above | 2.6% |
The following table shows which factors would make respondents feel confident about purchasing from a site they had not heard of before after finding an item they wanted from that online site.
If you found an item you wanted on an online site you had not heard of before, what factors would make you feel confident about purchasing from that site? (Check all that apply.) |
|
|---|---|
| Being able to use a payment method that offers protection | 67.7% |
| Being able to check the retailer's eBay feedback, if available | 49.4% |
| An objective rating from a trusted source | 42.7% |
| Customer ratings compiled by a trusted source | 33.3% |
| Consumer reviews on a third-party website | 30.3% |
| A review in a print or online publication | 25.9% |
| Seeing that it is a guaranteed, bonded transaction | 22.5% |
| Testimonials from customers published on the retailer's website | 9.0% |
| Other | 5.2% |
| None | 2.3% |
See Part 2 of "AuctionBytes Report on Online Buying Survey" at:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y208/m01/abu0206/s03
About the author:
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.
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