October 24 2006

Online purchases are 50% higher than offline - GfK

Market Research firm GfK have shown that customer spend around 50% more on electrical goods online compared to offline.

Market Research firm, GfK (who also spoke really well at the Internet Retailing conference) have released comparative data of the online and offline sales value of items in the electricals category. On average, online customers spend 50% more on items in a given category than their offline counterparts.

Netimperative.com have covered the report succinctly.

It's interesting that in a channel that's seen as a cost-cutting, low-price, competitive one that the average sales price is so much higher.

This counter-intuitive result can partly be explained by the category (electricals - of course, internet shoppers are more technically 'savvy' and interested in newer, high-ticket items than the late adopters) and partly due to the fact that the internet-accessing cohort in the UK is more affluent than those without easy internet access.

Whatever the reasons it's a timely reminder that the online channel isn't simply a shop front for price comparison engines and stock clearance, but could in fact be the prime retailing channel for high-ticket items in electricals.

Ian Jindal GfK's table is reproduced below: