Le French are stingy and Germans uppity

Survey 'reveals' e-shopper characteristics

By Linda Harrison in New York • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 7th November 2000 11:07 GMT

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French e-shoppers are the stingiest, while Germans get the most annoyed at malfunctioning sites, a report claims.

The Japanese are the most adventurous - apparently 41 per cent said they would buy just about anything online, closely followed by Brits (39 per cent). And despite the fact that eighty per cent of buying attempts on the Web fail, cyber-shoppers are generally not promiscuous and stick to their favourite sites, according to the survey by market researchers Infratest Burke.

However, it reckons dotcoms are missing out on $6.1 billion in sales through a combination of factors.

Many abandoned e-buys are the result of reluctance to enter credit card details (46 per cent) and dodgy Website functioning (42 per cent).

In addition, punters have to resort to using the phone to finish off a third of all purchases - with the result that 60 per cent said they would not return to the site.

Other statistics include: 47 per cent of Americans and 41 per cent of Swedes started shopping online at least two years ago - compared to just a quarter of the French and 15 per cent of Brits. Americans spend the most online, £1,096 per year, compared to the French $491, and the average spend of $754.

Angry Germans said they would be most likely to pick up the phone if a site malfunctioned (67 per cent), compared to 27 per cent of Swedes and Japanese.

Around two thirds of customers are loyal and re-buy at just one or two sites, while an extra 21 per cent of cyberdollars would be spent if alternative online channels were available. ®