press releases

Opinion poll shows over a third of U.S. shoppers plan to shop more online this holiday season

Consumers rate merchant performance most important factor when considering an online purchase

 

ARLINGTON, VA – Nov. 20, 2007 -- buySAFE, Inc. (www.buysafe.com), the leading trust and safety company for e-commerce transactions, and Vizu Corporation, the company democratizing market research, today announced a benchmark survey on consumer online shopping behavior for the 2007 winter holiday season. The survey, sponsored by buySAFE and conducted by Vizu, revealed several key insights into consumer behavior:

• over 30% of U.S. shoppers plan to do more shopping online this season compared to last year and compared to their normal retail patterns.
• merchant performance remains the most important factor to online shoppers when making an online purchase... MORE important than price.
• 2 out of 3 shoppers would spend more online if all online purchases were guaranteed.
• an overwhelming 65% of shoppers feel more comfortable buying from a Bonded Merchant.
• one half of respondents have experienced at least one serious problem when buying online (e.g., item never arrived), and nearly one third of those have had at least three or more problems with online purchases.

“This survey confirms that merchant trust continues to be the leading factor in a shopper’s decision about which merchants to buy from, particularly when multiple sites sell the same product at the same price,” said buySAFE CEO, Jeff Grass. “Shoppers want to be confident that they will receive what they pay for, and that it will arrive in good condition in the time frame they expect. We’ve found that this is true year round, but it’s perceived to be even more important by consumers during the holiday shopping season. The results confirm that consumers will buy more items, more often, when they feel comfortable and confident in the shopping experience.”

The survey reveals that 35% of shoppers are more likely to shop online this holiday season compared to their normal retail patterns and 33% plan to do more online shopping this year than last year. Shoppers place more importance on merchant performance than other factors like selection of merchandise and ease of transaction, with 48% citing merchant performance as the most important factor to them, followed by 38% citing price, 9% citing amount of selection, and 6% citing ease of transaction. The survey also indicates that a full 50% of online shoppers have encountered a serious problem when making a purchase, for example never receiving merchandise or receiving the wrong item.

What would make more shoppers spend their hard-earned money online? 66% said they would be more willing to buy online if every purchase was guaranteed and close to 65% said they would feel more comfortable if a merchant were bonded.

Other interesting findings from the holiday shopping survey include:

• 73% or respondents said they would spend more online this holiday season because of lower shipping costs.
• 46% of respondents said they’d rather shop online this holiday season than face the hassle of malls or pay the high cost of gas.   
• 34% said procrastination (e.g., buying items at the last minute) is the reason they plan to shop OFF-line this holiday season.

“buySAFE approached Vizu because of our reputation for providing Web 2.0 companies with a fast, accurate and affordable market research,” said Dan Beltramo, CEO, Vizu Corporation. “For this survey, we polled over 2,000 online shoppers via our network of hundreds of websites.”  

Polling for the report was conducted via the Vizu Answers online market research network between November 5 and November 13, 2007. The report is one of a series of market research surveys Vizu Corporation conducts on various issues of public interest. For a complete copy of the report click here.

 

About buySAFE
buySAFE, Inc. is an expert at ensuring safe, reliable and virtually risk-free online shopping.  buySAFE and its surety partners – Liberty Mutual®, Travelers®, and ACE® USA – certify online merchants to ensure they are trustworthy and reliable, monitor them continuously, and stand behind the certification by guaranteeing a shopper's purchase with a bond, up to $25,000.  buySAFE is the only company in the world that provides online merchants with an explicit third-party endorsement of their reliability and trustworthiness, backed by a bond guarantee.

buySAFE has been proven to increase buyer confidence by providing certified merchants with the buySAFE Seal for display on their Website and by enabling shoppers to guarantee their purchase with a bond. In doing this, buySAFE also benefits merchants because shoppers are more likely to buy when they have trust and confidence that the merchant will perform as promised. With increased buyer confidence, buySAFE Merchants typically enjoy higher Website conversion, more repeat buyers and a better ROI on all their marketing dollars. buySAFE has guaranteed more than 14 million online purchases with a surety bond. buySAFE is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.  More information is available at www.buysafe.com.

 

About Vizu
Vizu Answers enables anyone to conduct affordable market research quickly and easily. Vizu is an innovative service that combines an easy-to-use polling platform with a diverse network of Websites. Vizu also provides interactive content to Websites and bloggers through a free Web poll widget. Vizu users include Glamour, Sephora, Orbitz, Popstar! Magazine, Jobster, Cozi, Second Life, TeeBeeDee, TripWiser and is the polling partner for all Wetpaint Wikis.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and angel investors including Bill Hambrecht, Esther Dyson and Ron Conway. To learn more about Vizu, please visit www.vizu.com.

 

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