What Are People Buying Online?
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by
Nathan Lindsey
Computer
Products
It should come as no surprise that October's two
biggest sellers were computer related. Computer hardware topped the list with
software running close behind. Overall, the entire consumer electronics category
realized a 50% increase in sales from September to October. These increases have
continued into November. The week after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of
the holiday shopping season, saw hardware, software, and electronics place second,
third, and fourth in terms of money spent. They were beat out only by travel.
The people who shop online are going to be, on average, more
technically savvy than your average non-computer user. They are a diverse group
of people who have but one thing in common: their computers. So it should make
sense that computer-related products are going to be big sellers.
Small-Ticket
Items
The Internet is a new thing. Buying things online
has not been an option for many people for that long, and as such there still
remain many questions in many minds. Horror stories of Internet fraud are lodged
prominently in the collective subconscious of the digital world. Because of this,
most online shoppers are still hesitant about handing over large sums of money
for certain big-ticket items.
According to a study by the
Boston Consulting Group, 60% of consumers have "significant concerns that
someone will misuse the personal information they provide online." Added
to this is the fact that the consumers with these fears must now buy items sight
unseen. One focus group mentioned in the book E-Service by Ron Zemke and Tom Connellan
was filled entirely with people unwilling to spend any more than a couple hundred
dollars. This has an especially big impact on sites like AutoWeb that sell items
with a high cost.
