E-commerce usages laid bare

Monday, February 27, 2012 - 10:12 by Simon Crisp

A new survey published by YouGov has looked not only at the number of Brits who carry out safe shopping online, but, more specifically, at the types of products and services they procure via the web.

Interestingly, of the 2,000 or so people who were questioned, almost 28 per cent said that they would never consider buying their groceries from an online outlet, while almost half of all respondents said that they had not yet dipped their toes in online grocery shopping.

Fifty per cent of UK consumers have not invested in furniture over the internet and 26 per cent claim that they will never do so, while health and beauty products are also popular amongst a slim majority of 56 per cent who have spent their cash on this particular type of product online.

Ninety-five per cent of people said that they already have or will subsequently look to the internet in order to buy DVDs and CDs, which is hardly surprising, given the popularity of this type of entertainment in the world of e-commerce.

The reason that things like furniture and grocery retail are less likely to be carried out via safe shopping online seems to be down to physical contact, with 40 per cent saying that they dislike the inability to actually interact with the product they are buying, before it is paid for and delivered.

Many Brits are also worried about becoming entangled in a complicated returns process when shopping online, with 30 per cent saying that they did not want to have to jump through hoops to get their money back. Delivery timing also seems to be an issue, with 25 per cent of respondents saying that the lack of options when it comes to picking a slot leaves them unimpressed.