The dpivision.com Ltd weblog

An insight into the mind of online shoppers has been revealed in a recent survey.

The Pew foundation quizzed thousands of online shoppers to find out why they shop online, and they found the top four reasons are:

- Shopping online is convenient (78%)
- Best place to buy items that are hard to find (77%)
- Shopping online saves time (68%)
- Best place to find bargains (49%)

The study showed that online shoppers’ attitudes haven’t changed a bit since 1999, when the last survey took place, despite the Internet growing by 3,042%.

Internet security was also highlighted as a growing concern, with 75% admitting they don’t like giving their credit card number or personal details online.

But those questioned said they don’t mind leaving details once they are satisfied the site is credible so make sure your shop lives up to the test to keep customers coming back.

One in four web merchants do not know web shopping laws - Most internet shoppers do not know about their right to cancel and 28% of UK-based online traders are not aware or only slightly aware of the laws applying to internet shopping, according to a report published by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently.

“While 56% of internet shoppers surveyed did not know about their right to cancel under the Distance Selling Regulations, 29% did not know where to turn to get advice on their rights.”

Fact!

The UK internet shopping market is estimated to be worth over £21.4bn, and last year over 20 million people shopped online with nearly a third of them spending over £1,000, according to the OFT.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have recently launched a Consultation on joint draft guidance that assists and informs businesses selling services by ‘distance means’ about their obligations and duties under the Distance Selling Regulations (DSR’s).

The DSR’s give consumers buying services over the Internet, by telephone, fax, mail order and in recent times digital television and text messages, certain rights to receive information; a cancellation period of 7 working days and protection against fraudulent use of credit cards. According to the consultation, compliance with the DSR’s, makes it much easier (commercially) to resolve complaints and puts businesses in a stronger position to give customers good service and to win their trust.

The draft guidance replaces separate versions previously published by the DTI and OFT and is updated to take into account amendments made to the Regulations back in April. Designed to be a reference toolkit for businesses, the guidance is more comprehensive, broader in scope and tries to incorporate many other questions that businesses frequently ask.

Clarification is given in relation to specific distance selling such as online supermarkets, online bookings, computer sellers, CD, DVD and software sellers to name but a few. There is also guidance relating to the timing and procedures for customer refunds and cancellation periods.

The most recent draft of the guidelines, ‘A guide for businesses on home shopping’, can be downloaded from the Office of Fair Trading website and responses to the guidelines are welcomed by 11th November 2005.

This article was written and kindly provided by Alex Shiel of Ward Hadaway Law Firm.