NPD e-VISORY SHOWS CONSUMERS GIVE THUMBS UP FOR THE 2000 ONLINE HOLIDAY SEASON

Good Growth Expected As 68% of Shoppers Plan to Purchase Online Again In First Quarter 2001

PORT WASHINGTON, NY, January 8, 2001 - Nine out of every ten online shoppers said they were satisfied with their overall online holiday shopping experiences, according to the latest NPD e-Visory® report to be released later this month. Among the Internet users who purchased online during the November - December holiday period, 57% reported being very or extremely satisfied.

During the Holiday 2000 period, the online retail channel generated nearly twice the revenues seen in Holiday 1999. Sixty-eight percent of online shoppers said they will make an online purchase during the first quarter of the New Year, with 40% reporting they will buy within the month of January 2001.

Even though most online shoppers were satisfied, nearly two-thirds (63%) did encounter some difficulties. The problems seem to be much less than last year and clearly did not impact their overall satisfaction. Thirty-seven percent reported no difficulties at all.

"People seem to be learning the nuances of online shopping," says Pamela Smith, vice president of NPD Online. "Since they did their online holiday shopping earlier this year, issues like ‘out of stock items’ or ‘site temporarily down,’ while annoying, did not affect their satisfaction. Satisfied customers, double the revenue, fewer difficulties, high expectations for future online buying we see 2000 as a very good year after all," she said.

Amazon.com reigned as the most popular site for online holiday purchasing. Somewhat surprisingly, ebay.com played a very important role this holiday season, reported by respondents as the second most important site for holiday spending followed by barnesandnoble.com, jcpenney.com, and eToys.com. A variety of products were purchased on the Web with the book category on top as usual.

This year the online holiday buyer looks even more like the mainstream U.S. buyer than ever before. A little more than half of this year’s online holiday purchasers were female; slightly more than a third were over 45 years of age, and half had incomes under $60,000.

Despite all of the good news, shipping fees were cited as a major feature that held back online purchasing. Thirty-four percent of all Internet users reported "lower or no shipping fees" as the top feature that, if improved, would make them buy more online as opposed to at traditional stores. Even among those who did buy during the holiday season, shipping fees emerged as the feature they were least satisfied with. Thirty-five percent reported dissatisfaction with shipping costs. "We have known that shipping costs are an issue, but our data show just how important this is to consumers," said Smith. "Sites will need to deal with this in 2001."