Chart of the Week: Unpredictable Gas Prices Push Shoppers Online
Consumers are comparing products online and doingmore shopping at online retailers in an apparent concern about risingand unpredictable gasoline prices.
Internet marketing trend and research analysis firm eMarketerreported that some 14 percent of U.S. consumers were doing moreshopping online and that 32 percent of U.S. consumers had done or woulddo more online price comparison as a result of fluctuating gas prices.The eMarketer analysis was based on a June 2009 survey that theNational Retail Federation had commissioned to measure consumerattitudes ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.
Respondents to that survey generally planned to take fewer shoppingtrips (42.9 percent), shop sales more often (42.6 percent), and shopcloser to home (40.4 percent) when the made purchases from traditionalbrick-and-mortar retailers.