Shopping, social network key to growth in Internet usage
Mumbai: Indians voted online shopping (98 per cent) as the top reason to access internet; closely followed by social networking (96 per cent), according to a recent survey conducted by American Express and Nielsen to gain consumer insights on online buying habits.
Mr Manoj Adlakha, CEO, American Express Bank-ing Corp., India, said, “Shopping has always been the favourite pastime for India and now it has become the “virtual pastime. From ezeClick and SafeKey to Pay with Points at all online merchants, we continue to provide the right avenues to ensure convenient and secure online transactions for our card members”.
The survey was conducted across six cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. It revealed that 95 per cent users are using the online banking and 91 per cent are making online travel bookings. The survey found that 77 per cent of consumers, who are professionals, prefer making online payment.
The survey also found that more and more people are adopting online payment of utility bills as they want to avoid wasting time in queues. Delhi and Bengaluru lead in the online utility bill payments with 81 per cent respondents from these two cities showing preference for paying bills online. Jaipur came second with 75 per cent followed by Ahmedabad with 72 per cent. Mumbai, however, witnessed only 69 per cent respondents paying utility bills online.
The survey in fact revealed that women are the internet- and tech-savvier sex in India with a higher adoption of plastic money (74 per cent) to book flights online (56 per cent) and shop on mobile apps (98 per cent).
