Nearly three quarters of Americans (71%) find shopping online to be more convenient than shopping by phone, according to a study released yesterday.
The study, conducted in August by Primus, a Seattle, WA-based provider of electronic customer relationship management, also found that 83% of respondents ranked their last Internet shopping experience as “good” or “excellent.”
The random telephone survey of 502 adults (261 women and 241 men over age 18 with Internet access) found that 71% made purchases online and 50% reported that e-shopping is more convenient than it was a year ago. Of the online shoppers, more than half made purchases in the evening, 15% shopped in the morning and 12% preferred the late night hours.
The survey also found that women placed a higher value on online customer service than men, with 57% of women liking the ability to ask questions compared to 42% of men. At the same time, 69% of women and 58% of men regarded rapid responses to questions to be very important.
In addition, more women (51%) than men (32%) regarded comparable online product listings more important than those listed in either catalogs or retail stores.
As for customer satisfaction by geographic location, 40% of southerners and mid-westerners were more impressed with online customer service from merchants than were residents of the Northeast (31%) and the West (36%).
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