Housewives buying online

The consumption power of Tai-wan's housewives could generate considerable sales for online shopping businesses, an Internet research center said yesterday.

"According to our report, we discovered in May that about 74 percent of women visiting e-commerce Web sites, or nearly 1.45 million women, are housewives with children," said Tiffany Duh (杜慧婷), an executive at NetValue Ltd Taiwan.

Women in this category are becoming more active in the cyberworld and their online consumption potential shouldn't be ignored any more, she added.

NetValue is a global Internet research company that documents Internet usage and online consumer behavior.

The report said that since members of this group spend most of their time at home, they have more opportunity to surf the Internet.

An enthusiasm for shopping in combination with the convenience of the Web is behind the trend, Duh explained.

Housewives with children appear to be getting addicted to the Web, with the time they spend online jumping nearly 100 percent, from an average of 22.4 minutes in May last year to some 40.6 minutes in the same month this year.

Web sites featuring women's fashions, baby care products and transportation tickets are seeing the fastest growth.

"I enjoy surfing online, especially searching for bargains such as discount tickets," said Cecilia Kuo (郭珮儀), 36, a mother of two.

I have to take care of my baby and therefore running around to travel agencies is inconvenient, she added.

"Online shopping is very convenient ? I can complete the transaction at home."

Meanwhile an industry professional said that as an increasing number of households are connecting to Internet, new groups of users will continuously join the market.

"For example, at first the children in a household may urge their parents to install faster Internet connections for online games, and their parents will eventually have the opportunity to surf according to their own interests," said Charlene Hung (洪小玲), marketing director at Yahoo-Kimo.

Students or people between age 15 and 24 still dominate the e-commerce market, and consumer electronics are the best-selling products.