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Online Shopping Big Hit

More than 627 million people have shopped online at least once, the research firm ACNielsen determined in a study released Wednesday. The number one item purchased by shoppers varied enormously from country to country, with more than half of South Koreans and Chinese saying books are their top purchase. For Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore, airline tickets were the most common item mentioned. More than a third of South Korean shoppers bought cosmetics and nutritional supplies online. The global average for such products is ten percent of shoppers` purchases online.

"We wanted to know how far the Internet had gone beyond the simple exchange of information and were extremely surprised," said Bhawani Singh, managing director of consumer research at ACNielsen Europe. "This medium is far bigger than we expected, and it is clear to us that many retailers and marketers are not using it to its full potential."

The highest incidence of online shopping occurred in the United Kingdom, Austria and Germany, with at least 95 percent of Internet users in those 3 countries having made purchases online. Eighty-nine percent of American internet users have purchased products online, with the U.S. ranked eleventh in terms of online purchasing.