While over eight out of ten Indians say they can envisage the day all shopping is done on the Internet with Indians recorded as making the highest number of purchases on the Net, just about the same percentage in Japan say exactly the opposite. Yet, in September, The Net recorded an average purchase of three items over the month, with Asians showing a higher average of 5.2 purchases than those living in Europe (3.5 per cent). America was surprisingly low, with just 2.3 purchases. What’s real in this virtual world?

A global e-tailing survey by real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield settles the dilemma with the conclusion that online retailers expect their portion of total Internet sales to quadruple within five years.

The survey further highlights a major influence of the global, easily accessible nature of e-tailing on the traditional retail industry, which will reflect in property needs shifting to strategic locations and the proliferation of dedicated call centres and distribution centres.

According to director, corporate services, Cushman & Wakefield India, Arshpreet Chaudhry, cost considerations would impel these international retailers would choose India as their base for the call centres and real estate demand would begin to reflect this trend over the next 6 to 8 months.

"While the concept of e-tailing is still in a nascent stage in India, the latest Nasscom study pegs the number of current users in the country to be 4.4 million, projected to grow to 23 million by 2003. A definite indicator of things to come," he says.

Key findings of the survey- include: Distribution companies say the main challenge with delivering goods is finding customers available to accept delivery; Over 64 per cent of retailers believe e-tailing will create a downward pressure on prices; 80 per cent of web shoppers order from home, 17 per cent from work and 2 per cent from laptops while on the move; 60 per cent of the web shoppers said they found the information about where to buy online from other websites and 45 per cent from TV or magazine articles.

The top 10 goods and services bought on the Net are found to be CDs/Music, software/games, holidays/hotels/rentals, Rail/Air tickets, Gifts (flowers, chocolates, wine), leisure tickets (cinema, theatre, sports, events), computer equipment/games consoles, clothing and videos/DVDs. The survey finds that among younger respondents, CDs/music and books were the most popular purchase on the Net.

Books were the top purchase for higher age-groups, followed by software and games. The top six products purchased were generally the same for men and women, though not necessarily in the same rank order. Women buy more clothes and toys on the Net than men. The Internet, however was not found to be the main source for purchasing these goods. In the future, too, books and CDs are likely to remain the most popular items to be bought on the Net in the next 12 months.

Over 46 per cent of the respondents said they had encountered a problem while attempting to make a purchase over the Internet. Respondents in the US had the least problems, with 57 per cent saying their Net purchases were smooth. Asians, however, did have problems, with 55 per cent saying they did try to make a purchase but were unable to. More respondents in Singapore, India and Japan gave this reply than the average. Women appear to have had fewer problems while trying to make purchase than men. Over 53 per cent of the male respondents had a problem while 58 percent of the women did not. Older respondents and those under 24 years also had fewer problems.

About 13 per cent of those whose purchase attempts met with failure were trying to buy books and another 13 per cent were trying to book rail/airline tickets. About 25 per cent cited transactional issues as the reason for not completing the purchase, followed by 22 per cent attributing it to technical problems.

Delivery is another problem cited by 14 per cent of the respondents overall. It is of most concern to those in Asia (20 per cent) and the Americas (17 per cent) and across all age-groups.

The main advantages of Internet shopping over conventional shopping is the convenience factor, almost 90 per cent of the respondents citing ‘timing - can shop any-time’ as the motivation, followed by 77 percent voting for ‘easier - don’t need to go to the shops’.

The main barrier to shopping on the Net is the inability to see, touch and feel products and 72 per cent attribute this to denying a pleasurable shopping experience.

Interestingly, when asked which they preferred to buy from, a .com set up specifically to market over the Net, or traditional suppliers which also have Internet operations, 64 per cent of the respondents said they have no real preference, 23 per cent voted for the click and mortar companies and only 13 per cent for the dotcoms.

The survey was conducted by Simpson Carpenter across Europe, the Americas and Asia, in France, Germany, Sweden, UK, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, US, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Singapore. In the e-shoppers survey, a representative sample of 1,767 regular web users was interviewed online between June 8 to 29, 2000.

Senior e-tailing executives in 84 retail companies that have their own website were interviewed and a total of 60 telephone interviews were conducted with senior executives in distribution companies that deliver goods ordered online to consumers.