Internet Shopping Booming

By Gary Langer, ABCNEWS.com

Jan. 3 Internet retailers celebrating their Christmas shopping results can look forward to even more explosive growth: Forty-four percent of adults in this country plan to buy online in the future, more than three times as many as did so this season.

A new ABCNEWS.com poll finds that 13 percent of Americans say they used the Internet to buy holiday gifts this year, with their online purchases averaging $314 each. That was enough for business analysts to hail the coming of age of electronic commerce.
The future looks far busier. Its remarkable that 44 percent to plan to buy online because that accounts for the vast majority of people who have Internet access (around 55 percent in recent polls). As Internet access grows, so should the online shopping market.

The Coveted Profile

People who plan to shop online, moreover, fit the profile many retailers covet: They tend to be younger, better-educated and higher-income Americans. Among people with more than $75,000 in household incomes, for example, fully 72 percent say theyll be buying online in the future.

Satisfied Shoppers

These same patterns hold for current buyers. A third of people in the highest-income group bought holiday gifts online this year; that plummets to 4 percent in the lowest-income group. And a quarter of college graduates bought online, compared to 7 percent of adults who havent gone beyond high school.

Methodology

A final result also suggests that online buying may be habit-forming: Among people who did buy online this season, almost all 93 percent say theyll keep shopping online in the future.

This ABCNEWS.com survey was conducted by telephone Dec. 28-30 and Jan. 2 among a random national sample of 1,025 adults. The results have a three-point error margin. Field work was done by ICR-International Communications Research of Media, Pa.

Gary Langer is the head of ABCNEWS polling unit.