One Third of Consumers Will Spend More Online Than In Stores This Year

Convenience vs the threat of online fraud? About as much of an issue as convenience vs the loss of privacy. Convenience wins, big time.

The 33% who say they will spend more online than instore this year are part of a trend, not an isolated data point. Shopping used to be Americans' favorite pastime. Email and online browsing are in the passing lane. This has profound implications for marketing, for tax policy, for real estate development, for fast food sales, for auto purchases. Fed Ex and UPS are predicting volume decreases next year, you say. No doubt; the economy is weak. But the percentages still say ecommerce - and mobile commerce, in particular - are rising. And that will continue. JL

Ryan Kim reports in GigaOm:

Despite the threat of online fraud, consumers are increasingly getting comfortable shopping online. ThreatMetrix, which provides a platform for preventing online fraud, and the Ponemon Institute, which researches data privacy and security, did some consumer surveys and found that one-third of the respondents said they plan on spending more online than they do in-store this year The willingness to shop doesn’t seem to be slowed down by worries about fraud, which are still significant. Almost 3/4 of respondents (72 percent) said they were “very concerned” or “concerned” about being a victim of online fraud and 84 percent said they felt it was important for online payment services to protect them from fraud. The survey was conducted in August and polled 722 active Internet users.

“While consumers continue to show a preference for the convenience of shopping and browsing online, their concerns about becoming a victim of online fraud is also growing,” said Bert Rankin, vice president of marketing, ThreatMetrix. “With mobile thrown into the shopping mix, which is even more apparent this year, consumers and retailers alike need to be well equipped against fraudsters in every possible channel.”

Some highlights from the survey include:

37 percent of shoppers will use a smartphone for holiday shopping and 12 percent will use a tablet
40 percent of Millennials believe fraud is lower when shopping on a smartphone or tablet
32 percent of people have browsed a company’s Facebook page and then bought something on the company’s website
20 percent have bought something directly through Facebook
51 percent of respondents believe that Googleis more effective in combating fraud, compared to 26 percent for Facebook