Window shoppers invade Net

It was only to be expected. Indians, known for thronging a marketplace mainly on a bargain hunt and creating high footfalls in shopping malls without much conversion into buying, have taken the trait online.

About 54 per cent of urban Internet users "" 11.5 million "" are online shoppers. They search and visit shopping websites for product and services information. But, only one in four online shoppers actually buy.

In effect, the real active base of online urban Indian buyers is only about 2.2 million, or about 10 per cent of the urban Internet user population, according to a survey by JunxConsult, an online research consultancy.

The survey covered 20,000 people online and reached out to 6,000 people across 21 urban cities during a two-month period.

The survey shows that online shopping has already become a common online activity among Indian Internet users while online buying still remains secondary.

The survey goes on to list the lack of a strong reason to buy online and low penetration of credit cards as the biggest roadblocks to online buying. A third is the "perceived misconception" that online credit card transactions are fraught with possibilities of misuse.

"One of the key reasons why online shoppers do not actually buy online is the 'perception' of lack of enough payment options. Most online shoppers equate online buying to having a credit card. Almost half the online shoppers (51 per cent) attribute the key reason of their not buying online to not owning a credit card," says the survey.

However, it goes on to say that 60 per cent of the real online buyers actually pay online by payment modes other than credit cards. Ebay is the online shopping category leader in India.

More than 1 in 3 online shoppers prefer to visit Ebay for their online shopping needs, making the website the clear category leader.

While 22 per cent online shoppers fear the possibility of credit card misuse, 27 per cent existing online buyers also feel threatened.

Rediff follows "" and not far behind "" with 29 per cent. Then come Indiatimes (11 per cent), Yahoo (7 per cent) and Froogle (3 per cent).