ested in the product. The proportion of the Internet as an information source remains at a low level as a whole, indicating that the Internet serves relatively little in giving an opportunity for consumers to know and become interested in a product.

### B. Information collection

We asked what methods were used to collect information about the details and reputation of a product in the 12 months before its purchase. The products with most the cited response of "storefront" are PCs and peripheral devices, home appliances, clothing/accessories, foods/beverages, and automobiles. The products with the most cited response of "manufacturers' sites" are music/videos, PCs and peripheral devices, and travel/tickets (Figure 1-59). Compared with the "attention" stage, the response of "manufacturers' sites" are large on the whole, next to "storefront," showing the high percentage of people who are gathering information through the Internet. It is fair to say that the Internet is a suitable means for information collection since it can accurately send the very information that a consumer wants to that very consumer. On the other hand, the number of respondents who selected "TV" which 'plays' an important role at the stage of "attention" was relatively small on the whole. It is thus fair to conclude that TV, which transmits one-way information about the characteristics of a product, is not necessarily suitable for consumers to use for gathering information, and the role of TV as part of the information collection process is smaller than at the "attention" stage.

We asked about the means of evaluation of functions and retail shops for several products prior to purchase. Eight types of target products can be roughly divided into two types of product group depending on the method of evaluation (Figure 1-60). One group includes music/videos, PCs and peripheral devices, travel/tickets with a relatively high citation of "manufacturers' sites", and the other group includes books/magazines, home appliances, clothing/accessories, foods/beverages and automobiles with a relatively high citation of "storefront".

With respect to the former product group with many responses of “evaluation based on the manufacturers’ sites”, price and function are the central factors when evaluating a product before purchase. Many people listen to music on the website before buying. As shown, when making a purchase decision, the decision can be made instantly as long as information is available since the basis for evaluation can be obtained through the Internet. In other words, there is little necessity to evaluate a product by going to a shop and the process from information collection to decision making is quite short.

On the other hand, with respect to the latter product group with many responses of “evaluation at a storefront”, people seem to evaluate a product based on criteria that cannot be collected through the Internet, such as the looks and design of the product, contents, quality, size, etc., in addition to price and functions. When deciding to buy such a product, people tend to decide to buy the product by going to shops and considering where the product is positioned on the evaluation axes. In other words, when evaluating the options, there are products that have high families.

### C. Evaluation of options

Fig. 1-59 How people gathered information such as details on products and reputation before purchasing in the last 12 months (multiple answers allowed)

(Source) “Investigative Study on Access to Information and Consumer Behavior in the Ubiquitous Network Society”