A recent report by Nielsen (Center for Media Research), states that forty-nine percent (49%) of consumers in the United States are reducing their overall household and recreational spending to compensate for the rising cost of gas. Similar studies are surfacing for Canadian households and spending as well.

People may be reworking their budgets and habits, but ecommerce spending continues to rise 20% annually. These two facts may explain why your retail store is seeing a decrease in walk-in traffic while making a strong case for offering your own products or services for sale online and becoming a successful e-tailer.

The article further reports that 70% of consumers are combining shopping trips and errands, 41% are eating out less, and 39% are spending more time at home.

“Our research shows a jump in consumers shopping on the Internet as a way to deal with high gas prices…a wake-up call for manufacturers and retailers alike to step up their ‘direct-to-consumer’ efforts to utilize the Internet to communicate directly with consumers in 2008…”

Now more than ever consumers are looking to the Internet as a convenient, economical alternative to using fuel. Shouldn’t they be finding your business when they’re looking for products to buy online from the comfort of their home?

Last Modified : February 5th, 2008 Filed under : research, retail TAG(s) : not related yet Navigate : Previous post / Next post