Study: Online shopping on the rise again

Last year, the number of "e-shoppers" in Germany rose by 7% to 49% compared to the previous year, which corresponds to 26.9 million people. According to the "Online Shopping Survey 2006" by the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK), the frontrunners among 14 to 69-year-olds are books with 10.7 million shoppers, event tickets with 9.3 million shoppers and clothing with 8.1 million shoppers. Growth in the number of online shoppers was recorded in particular in the areas of large household appliances, facial and body care products and food supplements. The internet is also widely used as a research tool. 27.4 million people aged between 14 and 69 research consumer goods such as cars, electrical household appliances and furniture online before making a purchase. For three out of four people, price comparison is the most important research tool, followed by product information (72%) and retailer information (63%). Nine out of ten consumers surf Google at least occasionally before making a purchase. One in three use traditional price and product comparison websites such as guenstiger.de, billiger.de and preisvergleich.de. In January and February 2006, a total of 1039 German Internet users between the ages of 14 and 69 were interviewed by telephone for the study.