However, a survey published by the Consumer Association’s Which? Magazine found that the supposedly booming trade is not being exploited by many high street stores who are failing to satisfy in terms of customer service.
The survey found that the computer store Dixons offers the worst standard of service, with only 16% of customers saying that they were happy with the standard they received. PC World followed, with only 32% of customers satisfied, while WH Smith fared slightly better with 42%.
The survey suggested that high street stores had become complacent in their web operations and hoped to rely on their well known names to attract customers. The results of the study also pointed out that the standard of service provided by the on-line-only reatilers in competition with the high street stores in question was much higher.
A survey by Amazon.com, which came top in the Which? customer service survey, analyses the on-line shopping habits of European consumers. The survey found that shoppers were, as a whole, more likely to make purchases from home than at work, with 67% of shoppers making purchases from home or a home office. It also reveals that the French and British are among the most active European shoppers, with 3 in 10 visiting e-commerce sites more than 10 times per month. One in 10 of the Irish were found to visit on-line retailers over 20 times a month.
The positive outlook from these surveys is tempered by a word of warning from the US National Consumer League’s Internet Fraud Watch (IFW). The IFW warned of the proliferation of on-line fraud that faces consumers. It claims that, in the first 10 months of this year, US consumers have reported losses totalling $4.3 million, or $636 per person, in internet fraud.