News

One-third of online shoppers encountered problems this holiday season

January 4, 2009

MARINA DEL REY, Calif. — In what may have been the most closely-watched holiday shopping season in the short history of the online medium, some 36 percent of online shoppers ran into roadblocks en route to buying that gift — ranging from molasses-like Web site response to fruitless efforts to check out, to outright system crashes.
   
That's the principal finding of a new nationwide survey from e-commerce development firm Guidance, conducted through December 23. In association with Chicago market researcher Synovate, Guidance asked 1,000 online consumers, "When you think of online shopping this holiday season, which of the following have you had issues with?"

The findings come amid a dramatically weakened economy, declining brick-and-mortar retail sales, a shortened holiday shopping season — due to a late Thanksgiving — and uncertainty about whether online shoppers would pick up the slack.

Among the survey's major findings:

• Women were more likely to say their purchases were completed without incident (44 percent, compared with 36 percent of men).
• Respondents at both ends of the age spectrum seemed to have more problems than their counterparts overall: just 35 percent of both the 18-24 and the 65+ age groups said their shopping was incident-free, versus 40 percent of the overall sample. Respondents 25-54 were most likely to say their online shopping was incident-free: 44.5 percent of those 25-34, 46.5 percent of those 35-44, and 40 percent of those 45-54.
• That might explain why the youngest and oldest also were the least likely to shop online: nearly half of both groups (45 percent of those 18-24, and 48 percent of those 65+) said they didn't shop online at all this holiday season. The group most active online were those between the ages of 35 and 44: just one-quarter of them (26 percent) did not shop online.
• Those with higher incomes had an easier time of it: just 27.5 percent of those who earn less than $25,000 per year said they didn't encounter problems, compared with 46 percent of those who earn more than $75,000.
• Weather wasn't the only thing bedeviling those in the nation's midsection. Respondents in the Midwest were far more likely to experience problems: only 29 percent reported no problems, compared with 44 percent for those in both the Northeast and the South, and 42.5 percent of those in the West. Respondents in the Midwest were also least likely to shop online: nearly half (46 percent) said they didn't shop online, while just 30.5 percent of those in the Northeast agreed.