E-Businesss

Comparison of On-line Shopping tendency , Patterns and Preferences against

a Selected Survey of Women

Abstract

With the explosion of the e-commerce in the past few years, distinct buying patterns
and preferences have emerged for specific groups and other demographics. These
patterns have been measured and collected by numerous independent marketing,
business and even academic studies to understand how consumers connect with
new technology. With the advent of the Internet and its related technologies as a
new vehicle for commerce, new models have developed. This paper lays the
groundwork with brief introduction of recent trends in e-commerce on people;
particularly its impact on women. This is followed by their general perceptions and
preferences of the online shopping including product and website selection. Each of
these e-commerce “generalities” will be compared to information amassed from
survey questions and open ended discussions with a small sample group of women.
It will also delve into favorable as well as negative website characteristics and sum
up the favorable elements into a description of an e-commerce website that would
suitable to the group being studied.

Introduction
The Internet’s impact on people has been profound; particularly with respect to
consumers, who are starting to use the Internet as a new medium to trade and
purchase goods and services. (Dillon, 1999) states that In the early years of e-
commerce, buying online was an erudite activity strictly dominated by “techies” and
semi-technology literate individuals and these individuals were mostly made up of 20
to 35 year old males. This demographic were more comfortable and in tune with
Internet’s capabilities. But in recent years, the numbers of females making the
technology leap to shop online is surging. Females are starting to harness Internet to
make their lives easier and efficient. The recent surge has generated all of sorts of
new data on women’s online buying trends, patterns and preferences.
Objective
These new trends are analyzed against a survey of ten women in the Faculty of
Information and Communication Technology at Limkokwing University of Creative
Technology (LUCT). The volunteers of this survey will be collectively referred as the
‘sample’. Using the answers harvested in the survey of questions, comparisons with
other formal research performed on similar demographics and some direct
observation of sample members browsing and making purchases online, this paper
will correlate the sample’s view online shopping against the formal research on
current online buying patterns of females.

About the Sample Group

The sample in the study was not selected at random; instead, the members met a
specific requirement. The sample used in this study involves a specific demographic.
First, all of the members of the sample group are female with the age ranging from
20 to 25 years old. Second, all members of the sample are full-time university
students. Lastly, all are enrolled in the degree graduates or (Hons graduates). There
were no restrictions in residency, ethnicity, nationality or financial status; therefore all
the members varied in demographic nuances. Because of the education level and
sophistication of the sample, there are several assumptions made about the sample
group in this study. It is assumed that all the members of the group have a general or
conceptually understanding of the Internet. It is also assumed that all of the
members have prior experience with the Internet. That is, a member has experience
accessing and navigating the web. Additionally, all of the members have knowledge
of the ability of shopping online, not necessarily having actually purchased
something online.

How the survey was conducted:

A set fifteen questions were prepared before interviews commenced. All the
questions pertained exclusively to the subject of online shopping. Prepared
questions in the survey mixed between closed-ended questions expecting succinct
answers to open-ended questions, which required more elaboration of sample
member’s online experience and perceptions of electronic purchasing. As a
contingency to any complications in describing web concepts or confusion in
terminology, the prepared questions, reinforced by an open discussion with each
individual sample member on topics relating to the shopping, improved the
understanding, depth and clarity of the sample member’s online experience. Since
the surveys where performed face-to-face, the number of questions in the survey
were not fixed. This flexible approach meant that if a member volunteered
information that were within the scope of the subject matter contained in the
question, more questions could be raised to harvest more data. There was no
limitation on the where the survey was conducted. The surveys were conducted
primarily in participant’s lodging, but locations included public places as well.
Participant’s who preferred to have surveys conducted at their residence or
surveyors residence, had the opportunity to demonstrate how they navigate various
shopping sites and their thoughts about the site.

Trends of Women and the Internet

Women are becoming a significant force in cyberspace as consumers of goods and
services offered online. In 1999, a significant finding was made by a joint study
undertaken by CommerceNet and Nielsen Media research. The study reported that
for the first time in two years, online purchases from women have surged
dramatically. More significantly, “the growth rate for the number of women making
purchases online has surpassed the growth rate for men”. Yet overall, men have
continued to lead in the number of purchases on the Internet, than women. (Dillon,
1999)

Advancing two years later, yet another comprehensive study carried by the
ActivMedia showed sustained growth of women shopping online. The report showed
that only a third of new Internet shoppers who got online more than four years were
female and the previous year, twice that number. (Mintel, 2000) This report confirms
the increasing role of women in the online retail landscape. Women are increasingly
making purchases online where previously their presence was absent from retail
cyberspace. The Mintel report goes on to forecast that the new online presence of
women will eventually dominate the online shopping universe previously dominated
by males. (2000)
Research from GartnerG2 also presented European online buying has been soaring
as well. (2002) In fact, Visa Europe reported that UK consumers spend more online
than any other country in the EU. However, all EU countries enjoyed doubled
Internet spending. (Jaques, 2004)

Although the EU data did not discriminate between genders, it can be extrapolated
that increased global buying will yield a proportional increase of women buying
online as well. The E-commerce and Development Report prepared by UNCTAD has
suggested that advanced markets like the US and Europe are “converging” when it
comes to consumer’s participating in shopping online. (2003)

The report limits its accuracy of online shopping data to only developed countries
since information is scarce or unavailable. For instance, data about ecommerce in
Africa does not exist, so there is no way to measure Africa’s contribution to global
ecommerce. It has been established from numerous marketing research studies that
women are playing a larger role in e-commerce and will close the gap against males.
How did the sample compare to these statistics?

Surveying the Sample about Online Shopping

The members of the sample group have unanimously claimed to have shopped
online. Some have bought something as within the past month. The time in which the
respondent’s first experience shopping online ranges across the time spectrum with
one of the respondent’s making a purchase online only two weeks after this report
was drafted. That respondent, who is a native of Lesotho in Mokhotlong District,
started buying online recently and only after she established residency in the Maseru
district, for Diploma in Business Management Studies work. Similar to the
Mokhotlong respondent, the order memebers of the sample group mentioned that it
was only after they moved or maintained a short term education contract with LUCT
where did they make use of the Internet as a means to make purchases and learn.
The reasons for refraining to shop online in the respondent’s home country was the
high risk of merchandise delivery failure, expensive products and scarcity of
products, transaction and payment conflicts, or purveyor simply did not give option to
ship internationally.

From the interviews, it was discerned that the respondent’s who had the most
experience in online shopping were also early adopters and users of the Internet. An
expansive survey done by UCLA’s Center for Policy Communication identified
Internet purchasers waited months to several years before buying online. About half
of the respondent’s in the Internet report waited more than two years before making
an online purchase. (Lebo, 2002) This is in alignment with the remaining 3
respondents of the sample. Those respondents are fairly new to shopping online with
only 1 year or less of experience in online shopping. Although, they’ve shopped
online only in the past year; all of them were aware of the ease and popularity of
online shopping among friends and family.

How often do they shop online?

All Internet users have their daily tasks. Unlike activities like e-mail and chat, online
shopping is not yet a principal task among users. The UCLA report identified the
most popular Internet activities: email, instant messaging and web browser sites of
personal interest. Whilst, shopping and online buying ranked fifth as the most
popular Internet activity hovering around in 44.5% surveyed in 2002. (2002, Lebo)

All the members of this survey reported to use email, chat and personalizing
browsing at least once a day. The question of frequency of online shopping needs to
be clarified and solidly defined. For instance, the respondents reported not shopping,
meaning not purchasing anything online on a weekly basis, but admitted to browsing
products online or “window shopping” online at least on a weekly basis. The activity
of browsing not only entailed visiting personal sites of general interest and
information, but included perusing sites of various online retailers, auctions and
merchandise intermediaries. If the definition of online shopping encompassed
perusing merchandise online, then the frequency rate of shopping dramatically is
increased. Instances where the respondent did not plan to purchase or did not
anticipate making an online purchase; the act of browsing and aggregating
information about a certain product of interest increased the likelihood of the
respondent’s desire to acquire that product and thus make an online transaction.

Strict definitions and semantics aside, what about users’ actually purchasing
merchandise through the Internet? A joint survey prepared by an Internet customer
service provider, PeopleSupport and market research firm, NUA measured that
almost two thirds of Internet users who shop more than once a week are women.
(Cox, 2000)

Contrasting the high numbers cited PeopleSupport and NUA survey; all the
members of the sample group for this study did not shop as frequently as once a
week. Most of the members who have already bought something online reported
buying items online at least 3 weeks to 4 weeks to as long as 6 weeks. One
member, who happened to be one of the early online shoppers, shopped more
frequently than the others. She acknowledged that she purchased groceries online
approximately every two weeks from Tesco’s delivery service.

The sample group’s frequency of buying something online is still higher than
consumers using print catalogs to buy products. For instance, Direct Marketing
Association estimated that catalog users purchase approximately four items
throughout the entire year. (2002) The sample group exceeded these estimates.

What are the reasons for buying online?

According to a NetSmart survey, the most cited reason by female Internet shoppers
for using the Web for personal shopping of is the Internet’s convenience and
simplifies their lives (88%) closely followed by time saving (83%) with money saving
rounding out the list at a little more than half at (55%). (Mintel, 2003)

How does this play out with the sample group? When presented this question: Why
they buy online, rather than using other sales channels to make the purchases, their
answers were practically similar. Not surprisingly, the answers provided by
respondents for the purchasing online are common. Convenience, time saving and
prices are the primary reasons for purchasing online.

Importance of the reasons varied with more than half of the respondents answering
convenience automatically coming to mind. Although price was another major factor
rounding out the remaining reasons, it was mentioned the least. When pressed for
the reasons given to why price didn’t hold much relevance was because the
respondents tended to do a lot more comparison shopping and are highly confident
in finding comparable, if not lower prices on similar products from direct sellers and
store vendors. When posed as to why they don’t go and scout out those lower prices
from physical stores, the answer they gave almost unanimously was that they didn’t
have time. Here is where the time issue intervenes because a lot of time would be
required to find those bargain prices from direct or vendors; therefore time saving
trumped price as a key reason among the sample members.

The psychology of groups and organizations are beyond the scope of this paper;
however, it is worth mentioning the power of peer influence as a reason for buying
online. Six of the respondents mentioned that they bought a product online simply
because it was suggested by a friend or an acquaintance to buy it online. With the
exception of peer influence, the reasons for buying online in this survey are
congruent with other independent studies of online buying behavior and patterns. For
instance, a joint study conducted by MSN and Millward Brown IntelliQuest found that
60% of women believe the Internet is convenient and saves time. Price is not
mentioned. (Microsoft, 2001)

Other reason mentioned by the sample members include: no sales pressure from
sales people, the privacy associated with Internet shopping and product availability.

What are they buying online?

Men and women generally buy the same type of products online with books,
softwares and DVDs ranking at the top spots according to a CommerceNet/Nielsen
study, but “gender differences are more visible in Web shopping”. The study
estimated that women's top shopping items are clothing about 6.9 million shoppers
and books about 6.2 million shoppers, while men's top shopping items are cars/car
parts about 12.6 million shoppers and computers around 9.4 million shoppers.
(Saliba, 2001)

The UCLA Internet report is more extensive where it investigated the purchasing
habits of experienced and inexperienced users. The study found that seasoned
users were more likely to buy books, pharmaceuticals, computer equipment,
software, electronics, food, cosmetics, DVDs and children’s goods, whereas new
users were more inclined to purchase items like: clothes, CDs, jewelry, hobby items,
furniture and cars. (Lebo, 2002)
The sample group for this study had mixed results when surveying the things bought
online. Figure 1 on the Appendix 2 shows the results of products bought by the
sample study. It reveals a cornucopia of products purchased online but not deviating
too far from the collection of products identified in the UCLA report. Airline tickets
made the top of the list as the most common product bought online by all ten
respondents.

Books were mentioned by eight of the respondents and DVDs were mentioned by
four of the respondents. Women’s accessories, particularly handbags ranked among
items purchased four of the respondents compared to women’s clothing which was
mentioned by only two of the respondents. Three of the respondents purchased high
margin durable goods (i.e. laptops and fridge) online whilst only one of the
respondents referred to earlier purchased perishable goods (groceries) online.

Mobile telephones, either used or new were also mentioned as another popular item
bought online. Four respondents bought mobiles without contracts. One bought with
a contract attached to the purchase of the online.

Describe their experience of buying online?

Among the respondents in the survey, most had a favorable experience with
shopping online. Two of the respondents have had merchandise delivered that was
not what was originally expected which only temporarily downgraded the experience.
New entrants into the realm of shopping online were initially hesitant to commit to a
purchase using a new medium for transactions but overcame those anxieties after
the new users successfully completed a transaction and satisfaction of item
delivered.

Many of the respondents displayed more comfort and satisfaction with well known
and established e-tailers like Amazon. On the other hand, the experience of
shopping at other, lesser known e-tailers was a little more agonizing to a few of the
sample members. The distressing experience was partly due to merchandise
availability, poor site layout to search for items and questionable delivery times.
Respondent’s also had anxiety based on the unknown reputation of the website
visited. The unknown reputation of an online e-tailer links to security issues. The risk
of submitting sensitive, confidential information about personal information, credit
card or bank account information when committing to the transaction to a
unidentified party was the single most issue where respondent’s pointed out in the
survey. Yet after the transaction and delivery the respondents had a general level of
satisfaction on the experience.

Beside well known web e-tailers, auction sites are particularly popular and have an
excellent standing among the respondents. Most of the sample members find the
experiencing of browsing a plethora of assorted merchandise that even the
prominent e-tailers, department store, or so called “mega-malls” could not offer. To
show the respondents genuine interest and continued pleasurable experience
shopping on online auctions, several of the respondents admit spending countless
hours perusing various products.

Auctions are not completely immune from criticism. Respondents stated only few
downsides of auctions in general and are not particular critical of online auction
experience. The respondents revealed that the experiencing of losing the bidding
war in the auction for an item of high personal value or the amount of time required
to track positions of respondent’s bid against multiple challenging bids.

What sites do they visit?

According to Alexa.com a website that measures and harvests online traffic
information and regularly reports rankings among popular websites, eBay and
Amazon unsurprisingly, rank first and second respectively in the shopping sector.
(See Appendix, Table 2.) Another site, Rank.com further dissects the ranking,
reporting that Amazon’s and eBay’s multiple country domains like Amazon.de,
eBay.co.uk and Amazon.ca rank as the top visited websites globally. (Rank.com,
2004)

Information of popular website ranking reflects high publicity, high volume visitors,
new customers as well as repeat customers. This translates to continued growth for
these ‘pure play’ businesses. So how does the data match up with the sample
survey group?
The data provided by various ranking websites harmonize with the respondent’s
identification of websites they consistently visit and shop. Almost unanimously, the
respondents identified Amazon as the site they have made at least one online
purchase on. Eight of the ten respondent’s in the sample survey identified eBay as
another primary shopping site.

Full service and regional travel booking websites such as Expedia, EasyJet, RyanAir
and Travelocity are also frequently visited by all the sample members largely
because most the members of the survey are frequent travelers. Even specific
airlines such as British Airways and other more in RSA to name a few were
mentioned as sites visited.

Lesser known e-tailers visited by the survey group could not be recorded in this
study because most of the respondent either didn’t remember either the name of the
website name or the URL. In some of the cases, the respondent’s accessed another
web portal to be directed to the site. Other cases, the member used a popular search
engine to find the specific product of interest.

What important factors go into buying from an online purveyor?

A survey of European online shoppers conducted by Forrester listed important actors
women look for when buying from an online e-tailer listed security of payment ranked
the most important factor followed by privacy policy with personal details, ease of
ordering, cost of delivery and access to product information rounding out the top five
factors. (Economist, 2003)

The sample had different views of what they look for in an e-tailer. The core factor
was low prices trumped all other factors followed by product availability,
recommendations from peers or family members with ease of purchasing as the final
five factors. Surprisingly, other factors mentioned but not breaking the top five factors
were security issues.
What qualities do you look for in an online retailer?
There were four other main areas an online retailer should have emphasized by the
sample. These areas are: product variety, product specialty, site reputation,
customer support and service, and great web design. Here is a synopsis of what was
collected from the discussion sorted by category about what a great e-commerce site
should have:

 Product Variety: Amazon’s expansion into a variety of products other than

books has made the site a one stop shopping website. For the same reason,
eBay presents a variety of used and sometimes new products making it easy
for the consumer from jumping from site to site looking for the right product to
get.
 Site or Product Reputation & Specialty: There were a variety of sites
reported by the sample members that were selected based on the
respondent’s personal interest or purchasing an item from a site because of
product reputation and can be acquired via online (see Appendix C). For
example, three of the ten respondent’s listed Dell as another popular site for
purchasing high margin goods, such as the respondent’s working laptop.
However, frequency of returning to Dell for other related electronic products
and peripherals are slim to none.
 Customer Service and Support: This area was at the top of the list where
the timing of the delivery after making an online purchase and availability of
customer support if transaction or other miscellaneous problems occurred
were the core needs in customer service. So deliver the product fast and you
make the consumer happy. Based on the respondent’s requirements,
customer support was an important feature to e-tailers. But experiencing the
effort to contact customer support was rare to all the sample members since
most of the transactions went problem free. This can be a testament to the e-
tailer’s investment in the quality of service.

What website elements do they look for?

Excellent page layout was the frequently stated as an important feature. Excellent
layout comprised use of good subject organization, use of space for each section
and not too much clutter of information. There is also a need for a logical grouping of
products. Some existing retail and popular portals were mentioned to illustrate those
ideas. Websites that were recognized for good designs were websites like
Yahoo.com, Amazon.com and MSN. The search engine Google.com was applauded
among the sample members because of its sheer simplicity and ease of use.

Website elements disclosed by the sample members were use of color and graphics
on web pages. Problems with background color conflicting with foreground color
which could make it difficult to read the text have been experienced on some sites.
This goes along with ensuring that the font size is visible without the user changing
their browser settings or the color of the background does not conflict with the
foreground. Website fonts and other display elements should always consider all
types of user’s have varying degrees of vision acuity.

Interactive and color graphics is a popular requirement among the sample, perhaps
the most important criteria of any online retailer. Graphics was notably more
important on sites where second hand merchandise and apparel is being evaluated.
Respondents mentioned that sites can also carry too many interactive elements as
well. A balance approach to graphics and hypermedia should be employed. Finding
products should be easy. Respondents highlight ease of page navigation and
searching features as another important feature a website is required to have.
Navigating large, complex sites like eBay and Amazon would be painstakingly slow
and frustrating if consumers had to traverse multiple nested pages to locate the item
of interest.

Another area of improvement with the sample members was use of advertising.
Lately it has become a hot issue to all consumers over the past few years. The use
of intrusive advertising such as pop-ups and floating banners make visits to an
annoying experience.

The answers provided by the respondent’s closely matched conventions provided by

Webreference.com. As one of the premier web development reference sites for
professional web technologists and designers, it has provided guidelines that are
practical rules of thumb when creating sites. Two other characteristics that was
underscored as a reason for going online but not highlighted by the respondents
were good tracking and automation embedded in the site and security. E-tailers must
make transactions pain free and easy for both first time visitors and existing clientele.
Also, websites should have good security or at least the appearance of safety and
privacy. Consumers will hard press to never return if they are victims of the site that
compromised their credit information.

There currently no conventions on web page design in the industry. Various layout
formats, interactive features, and product display pervade multitudes of e-tailing
home
pages making page navigation and user functionality difficult. Jakob Nielsen of
Nielsen Norman Group (NNG), a world renowned authority in web usability provides
rules to think when designing technology around and for people. Nielsen proposes
that a visitor or consumer visiting a site should feel intuitive, familiar and functional.
(see Appendix D)

How can e-commerce websites be improved?

The previous sections outlined elements recommended by experts and the sample
members found most important online store should offer. Other consumer problems
identified by Andersen Consulting (see Appendix C) should also be targeted and
solved. Integrating all the best elements of web design and best practices of
marketing does not necessarily mean that consumers will flock to an online retailer.
Other unexplored issues like business Internet strategy, brand awareness and
economic environment and market conditions also play a factor.

Nonetheless, employing common business sense, consumer usability, quality of

product and service should not be demoted. Most of all, an online shopping
website’s leverage of technology and design should be a prime consideration when
opening a shopping site for consumer regardless of gender.

Conclusion:
Based on the information collected from this small sample study, all the best
elements of e-commerce, does not guarantee consumers will visit or remain loyal.
But looking at what they want and their satisfaction levels of other well established e-
tailers such as Amazon and eBay who have already invested significant resources to
understand what consumer’s needs, wants and desires. Perhaps it would be useful
to emulate these established pure players since they have been and continue to be
highly successful as retain high marks for customer satisfaction.

Appendix: Survey Questionnaire

1. Describe how you use the Internet.
2. How often do you use the Internet or going online?
3. Has the Internet (web) dramatically changed the way your life?
4. How would you perform a task without the Internet?
5. Have you made any purchases on the Internet?
6. If so, how many purchases have you made on the Internet?
7. If not, why haven’t you made any purchases?
8. Describe your experience with purchasing online (if any)
9. What do you like about purchasing online?
10. What do you dislike about purchasing online?
11. How comfortable are you making secure purchases online?
12. Do you feel security is good? Why or why not?
13. Do you feel you have a good chance of becoming a victim of an online crime
like identity theft or credit card fraud?
14. When you make a purchase online are you satisfied about the delivery or
service afforded to you by buying online?
15.Assuming the Internet has provided shopping convenience for consumers, has
this changed the frequency of physically going to the store and the amount
purchased?
16. What websites do you find most helpful, interesting or visit often?
17. What do you look for in websites? What elements do you find most
appealing?
Appendix B: Most Popular Shopping Sites ranked by Alexa.com
1. eBay
2. Amazon.com
3. Yahoo Auctions
4. Walmart
5. Target

(1) Mind Share = the percent of Internet users for whom the site first came to mind
when asked to think of Web sites that sell products or services over the Internet
(2) Purchaser Share = the percent of online buyers that bought from the site

Brand Strength

Company Mind Share(1)

Amazon.com 24.1%
eBay.com 16.1%
Yahoo.com 4.9%
priceline.com 2.7%
buy.com 1.9%
Barnesandnoble.com 1.8%
CDNow.com 1.3%
AOL.com 1.1%
Egghead.com 1.0%
IWon.com 0.9%

Company Online Purchaser Share(2)

Amazon.com 18.7%
eBay.com 15.8%
Barnesandnoble.com 6.0%
BMG.com 3.9%
CDNow.com 3.3%
ColumbiaHouse.com 3.1%
JCPenney.com 3.0%
priceline.com 2.7%
buy.com 2.6%
Yahoo.com 2.3%

Appendix C: Top ten problems experienced by online retailers:

Source: Andersen Consulting
Problem Description %
1. Gift wanted to purchase was out of stock 64
2. Product was not delivered on time 40
3. Paid too much for delivery 38
4. Connection or download trouble 36
5. Didn't receive confirmation or status report on purchase 28
6. Selections were limited 27
7. Website difficult to navigate 26
8. Website didn't provide information needed to make purchase 25
9. Prices not competitive 22
10.Site didn't offer enough gift ideas 16

Appendix D: Jakob Nielsen’s website requirements for consumers.

Consumers should:
1. know what features to expect,
2. know how these features will look in the interface,
3. know where to find these features on the site and on the page,
4. know how to operate each feature to achieve their goal,
5. don't have to ponder the meaning of unknown design elements,
6. don't miss important features because they overlook a non-standard design
element
7. don't get nasty surprises when something doesn't work as expected.

References

A Perfect Market: A survey of e-commerce. (2004) The Economist.

Cox, B. (2000). Top Web Shoppers? Women, By a Landslide [online]. E-Commerce.
Available from: http://www.Internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/382061 [Accessed
05/11/04]

Dillon, N. (1999) Women Buying More Online [online]. IDG.net/Computerworld.

Avaliable from: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9906/22/women.idg/
[Accessed 11/11/04]

E-Commerce Thrives in 2nd Quarter, According to U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray and
Harris Interactive’s e-Commerce Scorecard [online]. Harris Interactive. Available
from: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=124
[Accessed 11/12/04]

Jaques, R. (2004) UK tops European online shopping league [online]. Computing

Vnunet.com Business News. Available from:
http://www.computing.co.uk/news/1159326 [Accessed 29/10/04]

King, A. (2004) What Makes a Great Website? [online]. Webreference.com.

Available
from: http://www.webreference.com/greatsite.html [Accessed 11/12/04]

Lebo, Harlan et al.,(2004) UCLA Internet Report: Surveying the Digital Future, Year
3. UC Regents, University of California, Los Angeles.

Misung (1997) 8th WWW User Survey of the Graphic, Visualization, & Usability
Center (GVU), Georgia Institute of Technology

Nielsen’s, J. Ph.D. (2004) The Need for Web Design Standards [online] Alertbox
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040913.html [Accessed 11/12/04]

Online shopping soars in Europe [online]. BBC News. Available from: s

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2372577.stm [Accessed 03/11/04]
Saliba, C.. (2004). Study: Women Top Online Shoppers [online]. Tech News World.
Available from: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/15559.html [Accessed
04/11/04]

UNTCAD Secretariat (2003). E-Commerce and Development Report 2003, United

Nations Publication

Tracking Online Life [online]. The Pew Internet Project & American Life Project.
Available from: http://www.pewInternet.org/pdfs/Report1.pdf [Accessed 06/11/04]

Women Shoppers head to the web in force as the number as the number of Internet
buyers jumps 40% in nine months: New CommerceNet/Nielsen Media Research
Study
Also Shows Internet Users [online]. Nielsen Media Research. Available from:
http://www.nielsenmedia.com/newsreleases/1999/commercenet.html [Accessed
05/11/04]

Women's Use of Internet Affects Purchasing Decisions : MSN Study Explores What
Women Want Online [online]. Microsoft. Available from:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/apr01/04-09PurchasePR.asp
[Accessed 03/11/04]

UK vs. US Online Shopping Report June 2000. (2000) Mintel International Group
Limited.