Offline shopping still holds priority

A research conducted by OTX and The Intelligence Group during June this year states that around 60 per cent, i.e. nearly six out of 10, teenagers in the US have bought something or the other at some point of time through the Internet. Teens who confirmed having made online purchases revealed that on an average they spent $46 a month, while over 25 per cent of them said that they spent $50 and further every month.

Significantly, a majority of these teenagers spent most of their online purchase money on garments and music. Buying books, electronic items and DVDs came next on the priority list.

The finding in the OTX study points out that the Internet is not the sole media for the US teenagers for making purchases. These teens also use other forms of purchases as they do not want to depend solely on the Internet or buy everything online. Statistics provided by OTX shows that while 82 per cent of the US teenagers prefer to make purchases from the real shops, only 18 per cent confirmed that online shopping was better.

In an article published in the June 2008 issue of STORES, TNS Retail Forward vice-president Mandy Putnam observes that the young generation in the US still has a preference for shopping at the brick-and-mortar shops as they like the “sensory stimulation that accompanies shopping with friends at stores”. However, she admits that online shopping is teaching the US teens to be smarter shopper who are able to get the maximum value for every dollar they spend.

According to Ms Putnam, the US teens are fast becoming knowledgeable and confident online shoppers as they not only click incessantly to locate the products of their choice, but also evaluate them thoroughly before making any purchase. More importantly, these teens are keen that they find the right product at the price they are prepared to pay or one that they think their moms would approve, Ms Putnam remarked in the STORES article.

Meanwhile, the Piper Jaffray’s April 2008 ‘Teen Spending Survey’ points out that while the US teens may be enthusiastically shopping online, the amount of money they have been spending on purchases through the Internet is likely to be affected owing to the economic regression. The observation is not without any base, as Piper and its research associate, DECA, a student marketing association, have established that in the wake of the economic slowdown, the growth in annual online shopping spending was lower by 15 per cent and 11 per cent with young men and young women respectively.

On the other hand, The Harris Poll established that online shopping expenditure among 13 to 21 year-olds had reached $120 billion in 2007.

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