Shipping Charges & Giving Away Credit Card Numbers Top Consumers’ List of Internet Frustrations.

Shipping charges, spam e-mail, and having to provide a credit card number online top the list of internet frustrations, according to the latest Consumer Internet Barometer. This quarterly measure of who’s doing what on the Internet is produced by NFO WorldGroup and The Conference Board.

About 20% of consumers say that shipping charges are the most frustrating aspect of shopping online. Nineteen percent say that spam is the most annoying. More than 15% say that the inability to try clothes on is most aggravating. About 13% claim that having to give out a credit card number online is the most frustrating aspect of online shopping.

But consumers cite many advantages to shopping online, such as the ability to shop around-the-clock, availability of products, ease of product/pricing comparisons, and never having to leave home.

The survey finds that men are more likely to hunt for bargains than women. Nearly 50% of male online shoppers are bargain hunters, compared with less than 40% of women. Also, more men than women fault the online shopping experience because they can’t touch or feel what they’re buying.

“Consumers’ online shopping habits are a by-product of time, convenience and cost,” says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center. “In a world where the doors never close, bargain-hunting is the number one sport. Shipping costs, meanwhile, are the bargain hunters’ foe.”

Bargain Hunters Prevail – Especially Among Men

Bargains are what drive the largest percentage of online purchases, says Franco: “Among online consumers who made a purchase in the past three months, the greatest number did so because they found a better deal online than in a store.” Nearly 45% of online shoppers are “bargain” shoppers.

A distant second to the bargain hunter – representing about 16% of all internet shoppers – is the “traditional” shopper, who prefers to shop in a store but is not above making online purchases.

The “last resort” shopper represents 14% of Internet consumers. Purchases among this group are determined by product availability. The “hurried” shopper – about 13% of online consumers – is likely to click and buy when there is no time to shop in the store. The “die-hard” Internet shopper – about 12% of online consumers – simply prefers to shop online.

Men and women shoppers: worlds apart

The survey finds that among men, the ability to compare prices and products is the number-one benefit of online shopping. While more than 25% of men claim this is the most valuable aspect of online shopping, less than 16% of women share this opinion.

Among women, nearly 27% claim the ability to shop around the clock is the number-one benefit of online shopping, a sentiment shared by 25% of men. More than 20% of women rate the inability to try on clothing as the number-one frustration of shopping online. Among men, less than 11% feel the same. Shipping charges top the male list of online shopping frustrations, while at less than 20%, it placed third on women’s lists.

To view report CLICK below (Microsoft PowerPoint required):

http://www.conference-board.org/pdf_free/CIBpp.ppt