New Picture of Internet Use at Work

In its first report on the net at work, the company has used its Megapanel to gain insight on users at home, work and university. In theory, this gives the reader a more complete picture of the UK population's online behaviour than can be found elsewhere. The new research also includes information on NetValue's Buying Power Index (BPI), a measure of the online purchasing power of Internet visitors.

The findings indicate that people spend more time on certain websites at work than at home. Online visitors to Tesco, Egg and Lloyds TSB in particular spend much more time on those sites at work. It is thought that lloydstsb.com's customers, for example, visited the website an average of 10.7 times per month while at work, whereas home visits amounted to only 4.1 times per month.

Not surprisingly, British workers are also accessing a large number of websites with non-work related content from their desktop PCs. In this sense, bbc.co.uk experienced 2.3 million visitors from work during October 2001, amazon.co.uk 1.5 million visitors and friendsreuinited.co.uk had nearly 1.5 million. Additionally, as with home Internet access, msn.com leads the work access table, with 4.7 million people accessing the portal from their offices.

The research covers UK spending on retail sites too. Britain's high street shops have been attracting the most business, as nine of the top ten highest BPI belong to established retail brands. The findings reveal that WH Smiths, Argos, Comet, Currys, Littlewoods and Woolworths lead the index. At the same time, buy.com and qvcuk.com were the only two pure-play Internet retailers to make the top ten. As of October 2001, whsmith.co.uk recorded a BPI of 612, demonstrating that the domain's visitors purchased six times as much online as the average Internet user, while argos.co.uk showed a BPI of 517 during the same period.

Across the range of TV sites, ITV.com visitors appear to be the most active Internet shoppers. NetValue's data shows that the level of interest in this particular destination is well ahead of wellbeing.com, the Granada and Boots joint venture, and bbc.co.uk. The high scores from the sites also give a clear indication that these visitors are fairly active Internet shoppers.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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