Report: Online Shoppers Take Longer to Buy

Napa, Calif. - July 6 - The average time it takes a shopper to make a e-commerce purchase decision has jumped from about 19 hours in 2005 to 34 hours and 19 minutes this year, according to a report by security service called ScanAlert. The report suggests that the increase is due to more extensive comparison-shopping.

"Retailers should think of shopping carts as convenient shopping tools, and encourage shoppers to save their searches for future return visits,” the report said. “Merchants might have to work with cart developers to create this functionality. Still, saved search functionality where returning purchasers can easily pick up where they left off would save more of these types of purchases.”

Link: The Chain Store Age