Consumer confidence levels affect online shopping

The increase in the take up of broadband means that more and more people have the ability to make purchases conveniently and quickly online. However, many people won’t do this due to lack of confidence.

In this day and age, with so many households having access to high speed broadband, it would be natural to think that most people would make purchases of some sort via the internet, where they are able to enjoy ease, convenience, great choice, and affordability. However, it has recently been revealed that many people are not doing this due to a lack of confidence.

The report was released by the Office of Fair Trading, and officials from the OFT have said that consumer confidence levels are very low in some cases, which is affecting the level of purchases made online. It was found that almost one third of consumers would not make purchases online because of a lack of trust in the system.

It was revealed that one in five users would not make purchases online because they were worried about their personal security, and around fifteen percent of users said that their reason for not shopping online was lack of trust in retailers. One OFT official said that it was vital that these issues were addressed as soon as possible otherwise demand would fall.

He said: “Online retailing is the future for many businesses and increasingly important to the economy. If consumers are not confident online, demand will grow at a slower rate. So we must tackle these concerns right now if the online market is to grow at its full potential.” The Consumer Affairs Minister Gareth Thomas said: “UK consumers buy almost twice as much over the internet compared to their European neighbours. It is encouraging that the OFT’s survey shows increasing consumer confidence when buying online – but people still have concerns.”