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MORE AND MORE, IT'S 'SHOP TILL YOU LOG OFF'THE WORLD WIDE WEB ISN'T just for surfing anymore. According to NetSmart, a New York-based market researcher, shopping on the Internet is taking off. In a 150-page report called NetProfits: The Shift from Surfers to Shoppers, NetSmart notes some interesting highlights from a telephone survey it conducted in late 1996 of 520 Internet users. The big news: 54% of those surveyed said they had bought merchandise online last year, up from the 37% who had done so the previous year. While 82% used the Web in search of computer gear, three other big areas for Net shoppers were travel (70%), financial services (46%), and automobiles (44%). More impressive still, 18% say that the Web is the first place they go to shop. And 58% said that they always use the Web in the shopping process for such big-ticket items (chart), which NetSmart notes more often leads to a sale. For example, more than half of those who searched the Web for bargains in personal computers and related gear purchased something online. Still, security remains a big issue: 48% of respondents registered some concern about giving out their credit-card numbers online. Surprisingly, however, 75% did just that, proving that ''have card, will shop'' is a universal motto even among Net shoppers.
EDITED BY PAUL M. ENG
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Updated June 15, 1997 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1997, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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