The
Fragile Connection:
Dealing with User Preferences
Researchers are finding that the Internet is a mercurial place. What was
hot last year is not this year. Will e-mail remain the killer app? A British
study finds usage waning. And e-commerce sites face tough challenges as
other studies show that users don’t want to provide personal data and
distrust shipping and handling charges.
MWT covers three studies this month whose results are worth pondering:
Thirty-six percent of Brits (16 million) now surf the Net, according to
research just published. This compares with 27 percent of the entire U.K.
population just a year ago.
The research, published by the Consumer’s Association (CA), also found
that despite the surge of interest in the Web, the percentages of Internet
e-mail users is actually falling away.
The CA says that e-mail, the communications medium that spawned the Net
revolution, is now heading down the path of becoming a minority sport.
This year’s CA survey found that only 5 percent of Internet users in
the U.K. consider e-mail to be their preferred means of keeping in touch,
compared with 14 percent two years ago.
Gareth Headon, a spokesperson for the CA, reported that the research -
the CA’s fifth in its annual series - took in responses from around 2,000
people.
The report, "The Net Result: evolution not revolution,"
is now available on the Web at http://www.which.net/surveys.
"The results show that the Internet market has changed in the way it
is developing in the U.K.," Headon said. "It’s becoming more of
a tool for users, rather than a specialist medium."
The research also found that the online gender gap has now almost
disappeared with users split 55 percent males to 45 percent females.
The report also shows that although there are more Brits online than ever
before, the trend now is to spend less time surfing the Web, with 63 percent
of users in this year’s survey spending under five hours a week online.
The CA says that the PC remains the primary means of connecting to the
Web for the vast majority of Internet users (94 percent), with the digital
TV not taking off to any great extent – despite predictions last year that
this would be the case.
Interest in digital TV is also on the wane, with only 20 percent of
respondents saying they expected to be surfing the Net using their TV sets
at any time in the near future.
Broadband is definitely the topic of interest amongst Internet users this
year, with 40 percent saying they wanted to surf the Net using a broadband
connection.
On top of this, a further 7 percent said they were already hooked up to
the Internet using a cable modem, digital subscriber line (DSL) or similar
broadband link.
For its research, the report took in responses from 2,044 members of the
British public aged 15 of more, between May 4 and 10.
The CA is at http://www.which.net.
(Contact: Gareth Headon, Consumer’s Association 020-7770-7000)
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Even the most seasoned Web surfer is often spooked by sites that ask for
personal data and at times will lie to gain access to a site, a new report
says.
Two out of three Internet users will abandon a site that requests
personal information, according to Statistical Research Inc. (SRI).
Sixty-five percent of veteran Web surfers and 72 percent of newbies will
leave sites making such requests.
SRI’s report, How People Use the Internet 2001, also says that
21 percent of Internet users say they’ve entered false information to gain
access to a site.
At least half of all Web surfers say they are "very concerned"
about misuse of credit card data used on the Internet, the sale or
distribution of personal data by Web sites, and cookies that track a user’s
Internet activity, SRI found.
About 28 percent would be "much more likely" to provide
personal data to a site that carries a guarantee against credit card fraud.
Twenty-six percent reported that they are reassured by a prominent privacy
policy.
Additionally, Internet users are more apt to trust Web sites for chain
stores where they shop or for products they buy.
SRI is at http://www.statisticalresearch.com.
(Contact: David C. Tice, SRI, 908-654-4000 x302)
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While e-tailers complain that they’re losing money on shipping and
handling (S&H) costs, 63 percent of consumers say they don’t complete
online purchases because they distrust S&H charges, researchers have
found.
According to Jupiter Media Metrix [NASDAQ:JMXI], 45 percent of online
merchants said they are losing money on shipping and handling costs.
Forty-six percent of consumers intuitively believe shipping costs should
be based on package weight, while only 10 percent believe that price or
order size should drive S&H costs, the study said.
But the top 50 online retailers said 54 percent of retailers base
shipping costs on order size, while only 30 percent base costs on weight,
Jupiter said.
A consumer survey also found that 73 percent evaluate the total price of
products, including S&H, before making an online purchase. Jupiter said
companies profiting on S&H run the risk of increasing distrust among
consumers.
The researchers suggested that to minimize both customer distrust and
merchant risk, e-tailers should view S&H charges as a break-even option
and calculate rates according to package weight.
Jupiter said it based its findings on polls of industry executives,
consumer surveys, audience measurement data, and online advertising metrics.
The company is at http://www.jmm.com.
(Contact: Steven Sachs, 917-534-6852, e-mail: ssachs@jmm.com/)
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