Study: Shoppers Log On At Work

According to new research figures, the vast majority of online shoppers continue to log on to shop from work. The highest volume shopping days are Monday and Tuesday; the highest volume shopping hour is 1pm Pacific, 4pm Eastern.

by Kristina Knight

Online shopping experiences a lull between 11pm-4am Pacific (2am-7am Eastern). Likewise, the lowest online shopping days are Saturday and Sunday. Why are people shopping from work? It could be simple habit.

In the early days of the Internet, many homes were without access. Now, studies show that roughly half of home-Internet users have Broadband access. Still, shopping habits are hard to break.

However, there are some changes to note in online shopping habits.

"The graphs are flattening--albeit with much higher numbers. Online shopping is not only getting bigger, it's becoming more of a 24 hour phenomenon," said Doug Schwegman, director of market and customer intelligence for CyberSource (in a statement).

During the week of December 3rd-December 9th, 2004, the difference between the lowest and the highest number of transactions was approximately 300%. During the same week in 2006, that difference has decreased to approximately 160%.

"We believe several factors are at work here: one, the widespread availability of broadband, so people can conveniently shop from home, and two, the globalization of eCommerce,” said Schwegman. “We know from our latest fraud survey that many of our large merchants have 17% or more of their volume coming from outside the U.S. Just last year, that percentage was 14%."

More online shoppers from outside the U.S. are also beginning to shop with U.S. e-tailers for digital goods like music, video and software.