85% of Intenet users shop online

A new survey conducted by The Nielsen Company suggests that more than 85% of the world's online population has used the Internet to make a purchase, up 40% from two years ago, and more than half of Internet users are regular online shoppers, making online purchases at least once a month. When The Nielsen Company conducted its first survey into online shopping habits two years ago, only 10 percent of the world's online population (627 million) had made a purchase over the Internet. Within two years, this number has surged by approximately 40%, to a staggering 875 million.

Books are still the most popular purchases online, followed by Clothing/Accessories/Shoes, Videos /DVDs /Games, Airline Tickets and Electronic Equipment. Other significant growth categories were Cosmetics/Nutrition Supplies and Groceries, which jumped nine and eight percentage points respectively.

"The Internet is no longer a niche technology - it is mass media and an utterly integral part of modern life," the report states. "As our lives become more fractured and cluttered, it isn't surprising that consumers turn to the unrivalled convenience of the Internet when it comes to researching and buying products."

According to the study, the world's most avid Internet shoppers hail from South Korea. 99% of Internet users in South Korea have shopped online. German, UK and Japanese consumers come in a close second. US consumers are slightly more recalcitrant, clocking in at number eight. The world's most frequent online shoppers also come from South Korea, where 79 percent of Internet users have made a purchase online in the last month. UK shoppers chase them once again, followed by the Swiss.

At the other end of the spectrum, the world's slowest adopters come from Egypt, where 67 percent of the online population have never made a purchase over the Internet, followed by Pakistan (60%) and the Philippines (55%). The world's most infrequent online shoppers hail from the Philippines, where 59% of online shoppers have not made a purchase in the last three months, followed closely by Pakistan (56%), Argentina and Egypt (55%).

The number of Internet consumers buying books over the Internet has increased seven percent in the past two years, but the Clothing/Accessories/Shoes category has experienced the highest increase by far in the two-year period - from 20% to 36%.

According to the study, credit cards are by far the most common method of payment for online purchases - 60% of global online consumers used their credit card for a recent online purchase, while one in four online consumers chose PayPal. Of those paying with a credit card, more than half (53%) used Visa.

The Nielsen survey is the largest survey of its kind on the topic of Internet shopping habits, was conducted from October to November 2007 and polled 26,312 Internet users in 48 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, North America and the Middle East.