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Significant Rise in E-commerce Activity in Ireland
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18/10/2000
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The Irish Internet Association (IIA) has released the findings of its Fifth
Online Survey of Internet Usage. The results show that most Irish Internet
users are now e-commerce active - 62% of participants made a purchase online
in the past year.
Consumers are also spending more online compared to this time last year with
40% of respondents spending between £100 and £500 in the past 12 months. 88%
of online purchasers are happy to repeat the experience while of those who
have never bought online 47% intend to do so in the next six months.
The survey also identifies a growing interest in WAP (Wireless Application
Protocol) with 32% of participants owning or intending to buy a WAP phone.
However participants were less interested in accessing the Internet through
their TV with 67% of participants having no interest at all in buying a
set-top box.
The survey results also reveal an interesting trend towards
online/permission marketing with 61% of participants now subscribing to
e-mail magazines or updates. This highlights a real opportunity for Irish
companies to send targeted product/service/company messages to consumers
through email.
According to survey results, Irish Internet users have mixed attitudes
towards banner advertising. While 73% of Internet users notice banner
advertising at least occasionally, only 16% of participants find them
useful. Indeed a staggering 42% of Irish users find banner advertising to be
mostly annoying.
According to Mark Henry at the IIA, "The Irish Internet user is changing. As
they become comfortable with using the net they are happy to spend money
online and to access it on the move by mobile phone. While they are open to
receiving useful information from companies by email, they are less
interested in banner ads which are of little or no relevance to them. "
Frances Buggy, chairwoman of the IIA welcomed the continuation of the trend
towards an improving balance between male and female users, rural and urban
users and the increase in home Internet usage - however she expressed some
concern that "there is still a worrying lack of affordable access to
Internet usage in Ireland among those who have not had third level education
and are outside the higher earning occupations".
The online survey was completed by 2,260 Irish Internet users who visited
the IIA website, www.iia.ie, in July and August2000.
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