And many who have never shopped online say they intend to try it soon. They're willing to do it again, which means they're not dissatisfied. Women get connected As anticipated, respondents most frequently cited a desire for convenience and value as influencing their decision to shop on the Web. If shopping is what draws them in, they might eventually use the Web for gathering medical information or other material that might not otherwise be available to them. And they might end up benefiting from it.
Household income is an important factor in determining who shops online.
The largest categories of products they are buying include books, clothing, airline tickets, music CDs, and videos. The CRC, established in 1959, was a pioneer in studying the effects of television on children and in measuring voter intentions. The Internet survey follows on the heels of another CRC project, in which Massachusetts residents were polled on their use of direct-broadcast satellite television in place of cable. Probably no other nationwide survey, Elasmar says, has grilled online shoppers in as much depth as the CRC has done in Massachusetts - a state with a highly computer literate population. Since Massachusetts is a leading state with respect to income and technological orientation, these findings are a glimpse of things to come in the rest of the country.