More than one-third of all online shoppers surveyed around the world take electronic measures to protect their privacy online, according to GlobalWebIndex’s “Commerce” report, published in late 2016. Almost half (48%) use a private browsing window, while 42% delete cookies so websites don’t “remember” them, 41% use ad-blocking tools to prevent websites from serving ads to them while browsing websites, 34% use a virtual private network or proxy server to access the Internet, and 20% use anti-tracking technology.
The Commerce report explores the purchasing behaviours of Internet users around the world. The report also chronicles the types of products and services users are willing to purchase, and to what degree they purchase in the regions of the world, and by demographics groups such as gender, age and income group. News Biz Blog will publish a collection of data sets and analysis from the Commerce report, with permission, during the first quarter of 2017. For more information, go to www.globalwebindex.com. For more analysis on global digital media trends, go to World Newsmedia Network, www.wnmn.org, or and WNMN’s blog, http://www.NewsBizBlog.org.
Online shoppers skew young and affluent, according to GlobalWebIndex’s “Commerce” report, published in 2016. The most conspicuous online shoppers are those 25 to 34 years old, 86% whom say they shopped online last month. Following the young adults are those 35 to 44 years old (83%), and young Millennials, 16 to 24 year olds, (78%). The most affluent 25% of Internet users responding were the biggest online shoppers (89%), followed by the mid-50 percentile (86%) and the lowest income quartile (70%). Both genders weighed in at 81% who have shopped online in the past month.
