Online Shoppers No. 1 Concern: Rising Prices

08/25/2008

A new comScore survey reported that almost seventy percent (67%) of online shoppers tout rising prices as their number one concern in July. This was a slight increase from 64% in April. Job security (14%), financial market concerns (8%) and falling real estate prices (5%) rounded out the top four concerns.

While all income groups worried about increasing prices for online shopping, those who made more than $100,000 worried about it less than real estate prices. This group’s worry about online shopping prices actually went down in July when compared to April (56% compared to a previous 67%). Their worry over decreasing real estate values jumped form April to July (from 6% to 14%).

Of the 1,036 online shoppers surveyed in July, 82% reported spending less online. This was up slightly from 79% in April. While spending online was up for all income brackets, 86% of those who make $50,00 0or less spent less online; 81% of those who make between $51,000 and $99,000 cut back; and slightly less than three-quarters (72%) of those who make over $100,0000 spent less.

Consumers are creative in the ways they cut how much is spent on shopping. Some simply shop less (66%), while others use coupons (59%). Of the shoppers who use coupons, 99% reported getting the coupons offline, e.g., from newspaper circulars. Almost three quarters (72%) found the coupons online.

What this data signals to online marketers is that: (i) particular attention must be paid to prices in order to stay competitive; and (ii) as affluent shoppers account for 31% of all online purchases, rising real estate concerns among this group could adversely affect their profit margins.

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