US consumers are more trusting when conducting online transactions than they were a year ago, according to the Consumer Internet Barometer, a new quarterly measure of online usage patterns, produced jointly by NFO WorldGroup, Forrester Research and The Conference Board.
By the fourth quarter of last year, more than 33% of users expressed trust in the fact that their online transactions are safe; this is up from 27.5% in Q4 2001. A quarter of people also trust that their personal information will be safe when they purchase products online – up from 21.9% last year.
“Lack of trust has long been a major barrier to engaging in online transactions,” says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board. “Consumers’ concern about privacy of their personal information has a significant influence on their willingness to engage in business exchanges online. But this trust barrier is beginning to erode.”
Overall web usage increased in the fourth quarter, according to the survey. Now, almost 61% of consumers go online at least once a month; this is up from 58.7% last year.
A separate study by Jupiter Research found that western European internet users are become more willing to pay to download online content (see Western Europeans More Willing To Pay For Online Content).
