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E-commerce nets new depth of market penetration 4/14 Nielsen The use of the Internet for shopping, offering consumers the access to one-click convenience & the availability of a vast array of products far beyond what they could find in a brick & mortar store, has achieved fast & even surprising penetration. A survey by Nielsen suggests that 85% of the world’s online population has used the Internet to make a purchase, up 40% from 2 years ago, & more than ½ of Internet users are regular online shoppers, making online purchases at least once a month. When Nielsen conducted its first survey into online shopping habits 2 years ago, only 10% of the world’s online population (627m) had made a purchase over the Internet. Within 2 years, this number has surged by 40% - to a staggering 875m. ‘The Internet is no longer a niche technology - it is mass media & an utterly integral part of modern life. As our lives become more fractured & cluttered, it isn’t surprising that consumers turn to the unrivalled convenience of the Internet when it comes to researching & buying products.’ The world’s most avid Internet shoppers hail from South Korea - 99% of Internet users in South Korea have shopped online. German, UK & Japanese consumers come in 2nd. US consumers are slightly more recalcitrant, clocking in at #8. The world’s most frequent online shoppers come from South Korea, where 79% of Internet users have made a purchase online in the last month. UK shoppers chase them once again, followed by the Swiss. The world’s slowest adopters come from Egypt, where 67% of the online population have never made a purchase over the Internet, followed by Pakistan (60%) & the Philippines (55%). The world’s most infrequent online shoppers hail from the Philippines, where 59% of online shoppers have not made a purchase in the last 3 months, followed closely by Pakistan (56%), Argentina & Egypt (55%). Books are still the most popular purchases online, followed by Clothing/Accessories/Shoes, Videos /DVDs /Games, Airline Tickets & Electronic Equipment. Other growth categories were Cosmetics/Nutrition Supplies & Groceries, which jumped 9 & 8 % points. The number of Internet consumers buying books over the Internet has increased 7% in the past 2 years, but the Clothing/ Accessories/Shoes category has experienced the highest increase by far in the 2-year period - from 20% to 36%. Credit cards are by far the most common method of payment for online purchases - 60% of global online consumers used their credit card for a recent online purchase, while one in 4 online consumers chose PayPal. Of those paying with a credit card, 53% used Visa.