Today's eShopperLet's take a look at the average shopper as to age, gender, income, media habits, and dollar volume. The surveys of online shoppers have produced some very telling and interesting results. People who shop online are older than you think and thus more affluent. eMarketer (www.emarketer.com) estimates that in 2005 there were 33.2 million people online in the U.S. between the ages of 50 and 64, triple the number of 65+ online users. IncomeThe number of affluent Internet users in the U.S. is growing. Nielsen/NetRatings (www.netratings.com) estimated in 2005 that the number of Internet users in the U.S. with household income exceeding $150,000 would increase from about 8.6 million in 2004 to more than 10.3 million in 2005, a change of 19.8%. Media HabitsBURST! Media (www.burstmedia.com) reported that in 2005 Internet users said they were spending more time online, and less with other media. More than 35% of respondents said they were watching less TV, and nearly as many said they were spending less time with magazines. Some 30.3% said newspapers were getting less of their attention. This shows that the consumer's media habits are changing, and changing fast. Companies see this migration from old media to new and are positioning themselves on the Internet to capture this new market attention. And so can you.
Revenue and SalesSales are increasing too. In 2004, Forrester Research (www.forrester.com) estimated that total retail online spending in general merchandise will reach $151.3 billion by 2010, up from $75.7 billion this year. Those numbers exclude online ticket sales projected by Forrester at $9.4 billion in 2010, up from $4.3 billion this year. Forrester projects additional online sales of about $155.5 billion in 2010 from the combined category of automobiles and auto parts/food and beverages/travel, up from $65.6 billion for the category this year. Forrester also projected that new households going online and more online spending from those already there will drive up consumer spending on the Internet to account for about 13% of all general merchandise retail spending by 2010. The gender demographics are shifting as well. More women have come to the Internet and are making an impact on eCommerce. According to Media Metrix, in 2001, women made up slightly more than half of the online population in America. More than a third of online women are between the ages of 18 and 55. All of these statistics prove that there is a vast market online to be tapped by anyone who has a good product or service to sell at a fair price. |