Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Consumer Demographics Affect on Online Shopping

The consumer demographic profile is another major factor for online shopping.  This link has provided information about demographics and online shopping behavior.The factors are gender, age, job, monthly income, and martial status are main factors for online shopping behavior. These are the five main factors that contribute to online shopping attitudes. For gender studies have proven that males tend to shop more online compared to females. This could be because males do not usually enjoy going to malls and shopping traditionally compared to females. Another reason could also be because the majority of men do not enjoy shopping they just want a quick and easy way to buy without any hassle. I am sure many men can relate to this feeling.  Online shopping would be a more suitable fit for males. This graph is a representation of male to female ratio for the gender that shops more frequently online. In almost all times during the week males are more dominant.



(Frequency of Online Shopping)

   Another contributing factor would be age. Age is another factor that will shape the online shopping attitude. Younger generations seem to shop more online because they have more knowledge of computer technology. The Millennial generation being referred to would be the age group between 18 and 32 (Generations Online in 2009).  Schools have taught this younger generation how to use computers and access information on them. This new resource is more useful and valuable to the younger generation for this exact reason. In turn, the younger generation is able to feel more comfortable with the use of this technology. Older generations do shop online but, the younger generation shops online more frequently.
An additional factor that will affect online shopping behavior would be job status. The higher paying jobs will lead to higher salaries. This increase in salary will then lead to more online shopping. With a higher salary an individual can use there extra money to buy not only to pay bills but also shop online. These people with higher salaries will also be able to apply for credit cards and use that to shop online also. Online shopping is a luxury and not all people of the population are able to do this. Lower income families might not be able to afford a computer or Internet access to have the ability to shop online. All of these factors would lead to the conclusion that higher paying jobs will in turn lead to an increase in salary which would ultimately lead to a higher online shopping rate for these people. All of these conclusions would back track to the value of education. Education is a major part of people's future and will affect their jobs and future income. The lack of education will cause for online shopping and e-commerce to decrease. Education has an affect on not only e-commerce but also much bigger issues like welfare, Medicare, and other government issued policies to help citizens with financial problems.  
   Martial status is one of the last main factors that affect the attitudes towards online shopping. The highest shopping rate that was mentioned based on martial status would be widowed and divorced individuals. The conclusion taken from these statistics would be that widowed and divorced individuals are alone and bored and turned to online shopping to find companionship. E-commerce also allows for freedom and control on the Internet and this could serve the same effect for widowed and divorced individuals. The second highest online shopping rate was then single. The lowest online shopping rate was then married. This research was conducted and seems to be very accurate.
   The trends and patterns that who shop online is a great deal of how this new generation in society will become even more dependent on e-commerce than the generation before them. This online dependency can be seen in a both positive and negative perspective. This blog will continue to focus on the positive direction that e-commerce has brought society.




Related Links:


(Generations Online in 2009)

(Frequency of Online Shopping)


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