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Shopping Centers Today -> January 2001
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Study: E-shoppers across world strikingly similar
By Debra Hazel
WASHINGTON, D.C. — E-tailing is shrinking the world, with users on a global basis tending to buy the same items for the same reasons, according to the "Global E-tailing" survey released at ICSC's Research Conference, held here in November.
The study, co-sponsored by real estate service providers Cushman & Wakefield of New York and London-based Healey & Baker, was said to be the first to study all three perspectives of e-tailing: the customers', the retailers', and the distributors.' The sponsors found that e-tailing shopping trends are remarkably similar on four different continents.
"The main surprise was how consistent the results were across the world," Yvonne Court, partner at Healey & Baker, told SCT after the presentation.
The study, conducted by London-based Simpson Carpenter, surveyed nearly 1,800 e-shoppers via the Internet. The firm also conducted telephone interviews with 84 retailers with e-commerce sites and telephone interviews with 60 distribution companies. The study covered 12 countries on four continents—in Europe: France, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom; in Asia: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore; and in North and South America: Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States.
"We picked those countires that are more active in Internet purchasing; these were the top 12," said Anne Covell, director of corporate research services at Cushman & Wakefield.
Despite the varied locations of the respondents, clear similarities and predictions for the future emerged. Regardless of their location, for example, customers around the globe use the Web for convenience.
"Convenience ranked as the most important factor in shopping on the Internet across the board, with 86% of shoppers citing the ability to shop at any time, followed by the ease of not having to go to stores," Covell said. It should be noted, however, that Internet shoppers were surveyed over the Internet, she added.
What shoppers buy is also unifrom around the world: Books and CDs/music ranked first and second for Europe, Asia and the Americas, though Europeans tend to buy more CDs/music, while Asians buy more books.
"Respondents were also asked what items they might buy mainly on the Internet in a year's time, and books, CDs and music will remain the popular purchases in the future," Covell reported.
Also fairly standard worldwide was where Web shoppers make their purchases: 80% of all respondents report doing their Internet shopping from home, rather than from office computers. Regionally, 80% of Europeans, 83% of those from the Americas, and 69% of Asians Web shop at home.
"[Overall], Only 17% shop at work—I find that hard to believe at my office," Covell quipped.
But the survey did find regional variations among users, gender among them: While shoppers in the United States and Canada are fairly evenly divided between male and female, 96% of Web shoppers in India are men.
"[The regional differences] may in some cases be related to access or technical abilities, together with social or cultural expectations," Covell said. Companies expect the regional differences to even out over time.
Another difference was how much people buy via the Internet: Overall, respondednts purchase an average of three items in a given month. Surprisingly, Asians were the biggest buyers, averaging 5.2 items (16.7 items in Hong Kong), while those in theAmericas purchased only 2.3 items.
Yet shoppers do not expect the Internet to replace traditional shopping: Only 21% of the book buyers do most of their purchasing via the Web.
Perhaps as a result, the majority of retailers don't expect e-commerce to affect their store count: 58% of retailers claim they do not expect the number of stores to drop over the next five years. Asian retailers seem even less apt to believe that e-tailing will alter their store count needs.
About 59% do not expect much change in store locations, with companies in the Americas less inclined to see alterations on the horizon, the survey said. Specialty stores also are likely to increase, with 62% of the overall retailer sample expecting the number to increase.
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