The number of online shoppers rose by over a million in September and October, compared with July and August. Some 600,000 of these "new" shoppers alone ordered books. Therefore, with 1.4 million online shoppers and a share of 13.2% of total online sales in September and October, books achieved the highest online sales penetration of any other product group. Online shoppers also ordered PCs and PC accessories, in particular. The share of this segment of the total volume of private online orders amounted to 18.1%, followed by the clothing sector, with a share of 14.9% of sales. Although the number of online buyers for both these product groups is clearly lower than for books, the average value of each order is three or four times higher. With an average 1.6 orders in September and October, there are no significant differences between men and women in terms of buying frequency, although this is not true of order value. Whereas men spent an average of DM 154 per order, especially on the more technical product groups, women spent an average of "just" DM 109 per online purchase. Women also ordered more clothes and shoes, as well as day to day consumables than men These and other data are the result of a written survey of a representative random sample of 10,000 Internet users carried out using the newly developed GfK Web*Scope programme. This is a tool which has enabled GfK Panel Services Consumer Research to gather continuous data on online behaviour since July 2000 from a permanent e-commerce user panel. Data are obtained partly online and partly from a written questionnaire. From 2001, comparable e-commerce user panels will also be available in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland, with further expansion into other European countries in the pipeline.