Consumer Confidence in Online Shopping Buoyed by Security Software Protection
Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Consumer enthusiasm for online shopping this past holiday season appears to have been boosted by confidence in protective security measures such as anti-virus and anti-spyware software, according to the results of a new post-holiday survey released last week by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
More than two out of three US online adults (70 percent) reported that Internet security concerns did not curtail them from making purchases online, and 38 percent of online holiday shoppers[1] said they spent more online than they did last year.
One in three (30 percent) online adults, however, said security fears compelled them to shop less online or not at all this holiday season. One in five (20 percent) online adults said Internet security had them "very concerned" or "extremely concerned" this holiday season. Those concerns ran highest among those 55 and older (31 percent said they were "very" or "extremely" concerned).
The survey, which was commissioned by BSA and conducted in late December by Harris Interactive(r), examined 2,152 US online adults' holiday shopping patterns in relationship to their Internet security confidence.
Security Software Key to Consumer Peace of Mind
Of those survey respondents who said they shopped online during the holiday season, many said they felt "very confident" or "extremely confident" of their protection from computer viruses (56 percent), credit card fraud (50 percent), identity theft (46 percent), and spyware (41 percent).
They reported lower confidence in protection from having their personal information being sold to a third party (28 percent say they felt very or extremely confident) and from receiving unsolicited spam emails (24 percent say they felt very or extremely confident).
"The vast majority of shoppers refuse to let security fears stop them, and it appears that many are taking proactive steps to protect themselves and their computers. Yet, a substantial number of shoppers are still wary about e-commerce safety," said Diane Smiroldo, BSA's vice president of public affairs.
"We don't doubt that the wide availability of effective security software products that detect and fight cyber security threats is helping to restore consumer confidence in the security of online transactions. Nevertheless, consumers must first recognize that their best defense against potential threats is having a working knowledge of the threats that exist, so that they can make informed decisions about the safety of particular e-commerce sites before they buy."
In an effort to help consumers develop that working knowledge, BSA has recently launched a new Web site - www.bsacybersafety.com, which provides useful, educational information about illegal, fraudulent schemes and how to avoid them.
Home, Safe Home
The majority of all survey respondents (62 percent) believe that it is safer to shop online from a home computer than a computer at a school, library or other public location or from a computer at one's place of work. Computers used for holiday shopping were well armed with protective software: 88 percent of online holiday shoppers said the computers they used for shopping had anti-virus software installed and more than three quarters reported having anti-spyware software (78 percent), firewall protection (77 percent), and spam blocking software (77 percent).
Confidence in home systems may make employers happy: among those who shopped online this holiday season, nine out of ten (90 percent) said they did so on a home computer. Only 26 percent admitted to shopping from their work computer.
Survey Methodology
Harris Interactive(r) conducted this online survey in the United States on behalf of the Business Software Alliance between December 27 and 29, 2005, among 2,152 adult (aged 18+) Internet users, of whom 1,519 say they shopped online this holiday season (online holiday shoppers). The data were weighted to be representative of the total online US adult population on the basis of gender, age, race/ethnicity and region. In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of +/-2.1 percentage points. Sampling error for the sub-samples of online holiday shoppers (1,519) and online adults aged 55 and over (679) is higher and varies. This online sample is not a probability sample.