On Monday, May 11, the United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading released a report on online shopping in the United Kingdom. This report, titled "Findings from Consumer Surveys on Internet Shopping" contained some interesting statistics that I would like to share.

First, this seems like a repeat of an earlier article about the famed McMaster report, but 28% of United Kingdom residents surveyed said that they were too scared to shop online. Of these people, 30% stated that they did not trust the internet for shopping. Another 20% stated that they were concerned about their personal/financial security. And finally, 15% said that they did not trust online sellers. I am reminded of the words of Ernest Johnson, a great Internet Marketing professor who remarked that 'trust is more important than product, price and promotion combined'.

On the subject of trust, 68% of the people who did shop online cited concern over how secure their financial information was. Despite such a high number, estimates suggest that United Kingdom residents spent £43.8 billion online last year. I would love to find some recent research on the correlation between dollars spent and perceived threat. If you know of such a study, please let me know!