Despite Americans’ widespread adoption of e-commerce, sometimes there is no replacement for the personal touch.

According to an August 2009 survey conducted by Harris Interactive for human-assisted shopping site IMshopping, 77% of US Internet users who made an online purchase in the past six months would be interested in help from a real person before buying certain things on the Web.

Though a majority of online shoppers reported a desire for help at least some of the time, 82% of respondents said they had not been able to get that assistance in the past. And more than one-half of that group said it had affected their purchase decision negatively—at least some of the time.

“No level of automation can replace the human touch,” said Prashant Nedungadi, CEO and founder of IMshopping. “The results indicate that shoppers still want real people to help them purchase products, even in a digital setting,”

Harris and IMshopping found that overall, 74% of US adult Internet users had made an online purchase in the past six months.

Source: eMarketer