Consumers cautious about online shopping

WASHINGTON Although the consumer information is usually safer on e-commerce sites than in brick-and-mortar stores, many American shoppers are still hesitant about providing credit card details over the Internet. According to the Pew Internet Project's September 2007 survey, which was released Wednesday, 75% of Internet said they do not like providing personal or credit card information online.

The uneasiness over sending personal information online, did not impact consumer perception of online shopping in general. The survey found that 78% of online Americans agree that shopping online is convenient, and that 68% of online Americans felt that online shopping saves them time.

Despite the fact that the survey found that 66% of online Americans have at one time bought a product online, this number could be as much as 3 percentage points higher if security concerns weren't so high.

“These inconsistent notions about the online shopping environment show that, even as e-commerce matures, people’s confidence in the security of online shopping remains as an issue,” said John Horrigan, associate director of the Pew Internet Project and author of the report. “If people’s worries about security of personal information were eased, the pool of online shoppers would be greater.”