Datamonitor has released its IMPACT 2001 survey into consumer attitudes to eCommerce.
Datamonitor today released the results from its IMPACT 2001 interactive consumer behavior survey. The survey, which considered major eCommerce sectors in six European countries, shows there are five distinct groups of consumers in terms of attitudes to eCommerce – Resistors, Agnostics, Phantoms, Moderates and Internet Globetrotters.
Half the respondents say they don’t access the Internet at all – the Resistors. Agnostics, who have access but do not browse for products online, make up 9%. Phantoms at 27% make up the largest share – they browse for products online, but purchase offline.
Moderates, at 8%, make online purchases but are low-spending. The biggest spenders are the Internet Globe Trotters (IGTs), yet they make up the smallest share, just 6%. Even though they make up just 14% of consumers, IGTs and Moderates account for all of the $16.4 billion eCommerce revenue the survey covered.
Importantly, there is no evidence that lack of awareness or ability to gain access is a factor in determining consumer type. So consumers will not change groups over time as they become more familiar with the technology, unless there is a compelling reason.
Rather than trying to convince more consumers that they should spend more of their money online, then, it may be preferable for firms to offer multi-channel solutions that allow customers to swap seamlessly between online and offline modes at their own discretion. Such solutions would allow firms to sell to Phantoms, boosting the potential market from 14% of the population to 41%.
Would-be pureplay vendors, meanwhile, must note that increasing the share of wallet transacted completely online will require new applications (like online auctions) that offer something which cannot be delivered through traditional channels.
The biggest lesson, though, is that the potential for hybrid transactions is ten times that for pure eCommerce. The $16.4 billion identified in this research – and for that matter, the $27.1 billion estimated value of the total European eCommerce market – is truly just the tip of the iceberg.
