Kiwis Finally Click with Online Shopping

Christmas brings growth for e-tailers

Auckland – 22 December 2000 – Just as pundits pronounce e-commerce near death, research by Nielsen//NetRatings shows that New Zealanders are in fact increasingly using the web as an alternative shopping mall.

Leading the charge has been the functional one-stop fashion shop, fashionnz. In September the site recorded a creditable 1872 unique visitors, the Nielsen//NetRatings at-home survey panel showed. By October that number had rocketed to 9794, and came close to doubling again in November when 15,388 people visited.

flyingpig.co.nz also grew, climbing from 20,505 unique visitors in September to 23,7999 in November.

“Christmas shopping is playing a part in the growth we are seeing in online shopping sites,” says Managing Director for ACNielsen eRatings.com Pacific Brian Milnes.

“But equally the renewed health of e-tailers fits with a trend: as people get more used to the web so they try out new uses for it. The initial uptake can be slow, but once you find a web service that works you will keep coming back. “

Also helped by the Christmas spirit, greetings card site bluemountain.com saw New Zealand visitors climb from 29,731 in August to 39,822 in November. In the same period, egreetings.com visitors rose from 17,358 to 19,572.

amazon.com’s visitor numbers fluctuated; starting at 38,761 in August, peaking at 50,089 in September, and then settling at a strong 43,411 in November. The September peak probably reflected book-buying New Zealanders getting their orders in on time for the summer holiday, Mr Milnes says.

ACNielsen’s NetWatch for Q3 2000 survey found that 1,933,000 New Zealanders now have access to the Internet from any location (home, work, school, library, café etc). Of these, 13 percent, or 242,000, have made a purchase online.

Top products they purchased were:

Books: 34 percent

Computer Software: 22 percent

Recorded music/CDs/videos: 18 percent

Travel Related Services: 14 percent

Clothing/ shoes: 9 percent

Computer Hardware: 8 percent

Other: 8 percent

Food/beverages: 4 percent

Household appliances: 4 percent

Flowers: 3 percent

Groceries: 2 percent

Toys: 2 percent

ENDS

About ACNielsen eRatings.com
ACNielsen eRatings.com is a venture between ACNielsen (NYSE: ART) and NetRatings Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRT). ACNielsen is the world's leading market research firm, offering measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics, consumer attitudes and behaviour, and new and traditional media in more than 100 countries, and NetRatings is the leading provider of Internet audience measurement technology and analysis. Through the Nielsen//NetRatings service, ACNielsen eRatings.com is creating the first global service for tracking audiences, advertising and user activity on the Internet in more than 30 countries worldwide.

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