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YouGov: books 'among most popular online buys'

21.12.11 | Benedicte Page

Books are among the items most commonly bought online, according to a report from market research agency YouGov.

In Paying For Time: The Future of Retailing, a research group of 1,957 UK adults were surveyed. Nine in 10 had purchased items via their computer at home or via a mobile digital device in the past six months, with mobile shopping the more "niche" activity. Books, DVDs and clothing items were the goods most commonly bought online.

But retailers must now compete in a multichannel environment where if one online store fails to live up to expectations, demand is readily shifted to another, particularly in non-grocery markets, according to the report.

Consumers are said to be "very willing to switch the source of purchases based purely on price, highly likely to use more than one retailer for purchases and likely to use a different retailer for electronic and bricks and mortar shopping".

A price differential of 9-10% between stores will prompt a shopper to switch stores while buying a product, the report found.

YouGov SixthSense research director James McCoy concluded: "Retailers will have to work even harder in future to stop consumers moving elsewhere."
 

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