Consumers Ready to Embrace Net Commerce and Marketing

The Internet has changed the shopping habits of a majority of consumers who use it, according to a survey focused on marketing issues.

“The World Wide Internet Opinion Survey,” a joint project of @d:tech and online community Web site Talk City suggests that mainstream Internet consumers are ready to fully embrace marketing and commerce on the Internet.

“The little ripples we see in this survey are signaling the larger wave to come in e-commerce,” said Peter Young, Manager, Sales Communications for Talk City.

Among those responding to the survey, 51 percent said that the Internet has in some ways changed the way they shop. In addition, 83 percent of respondents said that they have made an impulse purchase on the Internet. One-third of the respondents said “total cost” was the single greatest deterrent to purchasing on the Internet, while 13 percent said “wrong size, etc.,” and only 9 percent said “privacy.” The remaining 45 percent listed “security.”

Internet Advertising Considered Intrusive
Pop-up ads	42%
E-mail ads	25%
Banners	4%
None	29%
Source: @d:tech/Talk City

“Security concerns are to be expected,” Young said. “This finding indicates that if the industry is to succeed with e-commerce, it collectively needs to review the selling proposition. People are more concerned with total cost than they are with privacy issues.”

The survey addressed the impact of advertising on Internet commerce: 36 percent of respondents said they have purchased on the Internet as a result of a TV, radio, or print advertisement, while 21 percent said they have made a Net purchase as a result of an email advertisement. In addition, 29 percent of respondents found no form of Internet advertising to be “intrusive.” Among the remainder who answered in the affirmative, 42 percent listed “pop-up ads” as most intrusive, 25 percent said email ads, while only 4 percent listed banner ads as most intrusive.

Thirty-two percent of respondents said “word of mouth” was the vehicle that most drives them to new Web sites — second only to search engines, which garnered 36 percent of responses.

“The average Net citizen acts, interacts and reacts with friends on the Internet. We are still acting in a community environment in using the Internet,” Young said.

The survey will be conducted twice a year on Talk City’s Web site.