Study: Internet Research Influences Most Consumer Electronics Purchases

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- About 77% of consumer electronics purchases are influenced by Internet research, according to a new study commissioned by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and Sunnyvale-based Yahoo. The study, conducted by Hall and Partners, explored the ways that consumers buy cell phones, computers, digital cameras, digital music players and televisions, and found that online research time directly correlated to product price. As the price of a product increased, so did the amount of time a consumer spent researching that product. The least amount of time spent researching was on cell phones at nine hours and the most was 15 hours on televisions. For those who purchased, the average amount of time spent researching online was 12 hours. About three-quarter of consumers said that comparing prices of the same product at different stores is easy to do online and two-thirds said that they preferred shopping online because of the wider variety of products.
http://www.ce.org/Press/CurrentNews/press_release_detail.asp?id=11166