If you thought only women were addicted to shopping, think again. Especially, if it is shopping online. A recent study reveals that male online shoppers outnumber the female shoppers by 82:18. The survey has been conducted by Brandquiver, India’s first integrated brand consultancy for the Net. The findings reveal that e-shopping is booming and implies that there is an enormous scope for the B2C sites. According to NASSCOM, B2C e-commerce transactions are expected to grow multi-fold. In fact, online advertising is also expected to go up.

The month-long online survey, carried out from mid January to mid February, also aimed to study the level of awareness and usage of B2C sites by focusing on the supply side, purchase pattern and behaviour of e-shoppers. The awareness among the online shopping sites was 91 per cent with Rediff at 81 per cent followed by Sifymall and Fabmart at 59 per cent.

A total of 1,328 respondents participated in the research. Of them a sizeable number were from the US and UAE. The effective sample size of the Indian netizens was 904.

While most were working adults (77 percent belonged to the age group of 21-40 years and 74 per cent were working), there was also a sizeable participation from students (22 percent). More than 90 percent of the respondents belonged to SEC (socioeconomic category) A, while nine per cent belonged to SEC B. There was no participation from SEC C. Also, 51 percent were graduates/post-graduates in professional areas, and 30 percent were graduates/post-graduates from general streams.

Most respondents had high purchasing power with 23 percent earning an annual household income (AHI) of upto Rs one lakh; while 24 percent were between Rs 1 and 2 lakh income group. Twenty one per cent earned Rs two to three lakh, while the rest earned above that

The study revealed that mostly products like music/video cassettes and books are sold the most on the net. In fact, 60 percent of the total purchase of products comprise cassettes and books. On the other hand, movie and travel tickets, CDs and computer related items make for 25-35 percent of the purchases. It revealed that apparels, household goods/general appliances, electronic goods, toys, flowers, payment of bills and groceries sold the minimum (10-20 percent). Analysts feel that this is due to the lack of touch and feel factor, lack of security in terms of payment structures and lack of surety of quality.

It was found that books were favoured more by consumers aged 26 years and above, while the younger consumers favoured music cassettes. On the other hand, video cassettes, CDs were purchased more by men.

The study revealed that 60 percent of those who shopped online have made purchases thrice or more times, while 20 per cent bought twice and 13 per cent bought on the Net just once. This also indicates that once a person engages in an online transaction, is expected to shop again. Majority of transactions were up to Rs 1,000 but close to 10 per cent of the shopping exceeded Rs 5,000. Among the Indian Netizens, 69 percent said that they would buy online in the future while 31 per cent said they would not.

But why has e-shopping gone up? Says Ranjyoti Barooah, Chief Executive Officer, Brandquiver, “The consumers are getting more familiar with the Net and the concept of shopping on the Net. Also it is due to greater penetration of credit cards due to aggressive marketing by the credit card companies more technological advances like payment gateways, secure servers.”

The survey shows that the single largest driving factor for online shopping is convenience, this is followed by good bargains/deals. However the fears about buying online included fear of poor quality and a sense of insecurity with regards to the credit card numbers.

A possible way to contain the fear of revealing credit card numbers is to use the recently introduced the pre-paid e-card.

According to Barooah, marketers are now shifting their focus from increasing brand awareness to improving brand loyalty and providing better customer service.

The good news for most B2C sites is that online advertising is taking off too. Barooah says that earlier mostly the finance companies and dotcoms advertised but now even FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies are looking at advertising on the sites. “Though the proportion of online advertising is still small it is growing fast and there are many more options available now for specific tasks,” says Barooah.