GVU's Eighth WWW User Survey Shopping Graphs

Purchasing Decisions Personal

Notes:

For this question, we wanted to know how frequently information gathered on the web resulted in a purchasing decision for personal purchases. The largest category of users replied less than once per month (38%), followed by 1-3 times per month (29%). Interestingly, only 16% said they had never made a personal purchasing decision based primarily on web material (compare this to 21% who never made a professional purchasing decision: Purchasing Decisions - Professional). Those in the 26-50 age range use the web more frequently for purchasing decisions than other age groups (45% more than once a month). Use of the web for personal purchasing decisions noticeably increases with experience: 52% of experts more than once a month compared to 35% of novices.

How often do you make a decision to purchase (or not to purchase) a product/service based primarily on information that you have gathered on the web whether or not you use the web to make the purchase?

Personal  Professional

                     Never

                     Less than once per month

                     1-3 times/month

                     4-10 times/month

                     11-20 times/month

                     20 or more times/month

Table of Data for All Categories

Purchasing Decisions Personal

All

Male

Female

USA

Europe

10-18

19-25

26-50

50+

Novice

Intermediate

Expert

1-3/mo

945.00

29.05%

603.00

30.44%

332.00

27.37%

834.00

30.22%

35.00

19.55%

22.00

21.78%

123.00

26.97%

612.00

31.45%

161.00

27.29%

304.00

25.92%

330.00

29.60%

301.00

33.22%

11-20/mo

58.00

1.78%

36.00

1.82%

21.00

1.73%

52.00

1.88%

1.00

0.56%

0.00

0.00%

15.00

3.29%

32.00

1.64%

8.00

1.36%

10.00

0.85%

17.00

1.52%

30.00

3.31%

4-10/mo

326.00

10.02%

207.00

10.45%

115.00

9.48%

297.00

10.76%

13.00

7.26%

11.00

10.89%

42.00

9.21%

213.00

10.95%

46.00

7.80%

83.00

7.08%

112.00

10.04%

127.00

14.02%

<1/mo

1246.00

38.30%

763.00

38.52%

461.00

38.00%

1014.00

36.74%

90.00

50.28%

36.00

35.64%

187.00

41.01%

740.00

38.03%

233.00

39.49%

431.00

36.74%

454.00

40.72%

339.00

37.42%

>20/mo

35.00

1.08%

22.00

1.11%

12.00

0.99%

32.00

1.16%

1.00

0.56%

1.00

0.99%

5.00

1.10%

21.00

1.08%

6.00

1.02%

8.00

0.68%

9.00

0.81%

17.00

1.88%

Never

542.00

16.66%

284.00

14.34%

243.00

20.03%

461.00

16.70%

27.00

15.08%

29.00

28.71%

79.00

17.32%

283.00

14.54%

104.00

17.63%

295.00

25.15%

161.00

14.44%

71.00

7.84%

For more information or to submit comments:
send e-mail to www-survey@cc.gatech.edu.
GVU's WWW Surveying Team
Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0280