Identity Theft Doesn't Worry Most Online Shoppers -Survey
By HEATHER DRAPER Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
November 17, 2005 4:07 p.m.
DENVER -- Men seem to be more comfortable shopping online than women, but most Americans say identity theft concerns won't affect their online shopping this holiday season, according to a survey commissioned by First Data Corp. (FDC).
When asked if heightened concern over online identity theft would make them more or less inclined to shop online this holiday season, 71% said it wouldn't make a difference in their online shopping habits.
One-quarter of the respondents said they would be less inclined to shop online because of identity theft fears. Women feel most strongly about it, with 32% saying they'd be less inclined to shop online for the holidays, versus 18% of men, the identity theft survey found.
Four percent of respondents said they would be more inclined to shop online this holiday season even with heightened concerns over identity theft.
First Data, of Denver, last weekend called 1,028 adults of all ages living in the continental U.S. for the survey. Of those, 745 were Internet users and 653 of those Internet users shop online, the company said.
The payments processing and financial services company conducted the survey to learn more about what end-users - consumers - think about Internet security, said First Data spokeswoman Nancy Etheredge.
"We have been working for many years behind the scenes to make sure (online) transactions were safe and secure," Etheredge said. "This led us to thinking that we want to know more about what consumers are thinking about this."
First Data's results echoed a recent Forrester Research Inc. (FORR) report that found that women younger than 35 make up the largest group of online shopping holdouts.
Forrester Research Vice President Carrie Johnson found that 28% of North American households that use the Internet still haven't made an online purchase.
Credit card security fears, low comfort levels for technology, the inability to actually see the product before buying it and shipping costs were the biggest reasons Internet users cited for not wanting to make purchases online, Johnson wrote.
Retailers need to earn the trust of technophobes - many of them females, she says.
"To accelerate adoption, retailers must gain trust from shopper and focus on winning over young females - the most hesitant group of online shoppers with the greatest future spending promise," Johnson said.
U.S. online retail sales are expected to grow from $172 billion in 2005 to $329 billion in 2010, she said.
Raf Sorrentino, vice president, First Data Risk and Fraud Solutions, said the identity theft survey results were in line with his expectations.
"I am very pleased in what I saw," he said. "It's a testimony that the work we have been deploying in last 10 to 15 years ... is coming to fruition. We are giving consumers and merchants confidence."
Sorrentino spends much of his time educating merchants about high-tech fraud and how to prevent it. Credit cards themselves have evolved to prevent fraud, he said, including the use of protective holograms, encrypted magnetic strips and a three-digit identification number on the back.
Online merchants have also learned to put up security firewalls and how to look for "red flags" in a consumer's spending habits, he said.
"We are always going to have a level of fraud, but to the best of our ability we are (driving) the Internet to be a safe environment for consumers and merchants," Sorrentino said. |
