Are You an Online Window Shopper -- or an Actual Buyer? ebates.com Data on Cybershopping Behavior Finds We Purchase Entertainment, Browse Apparel.

Business Editors &Internet/E-Commerce Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2000

Based on Half-Million Sessions -- Largest Snapshot of Online Buying Behavior to Date -- One in Five Opts to Buy, But Wide Variations Exist

With a second season of cybershopping under our belts, it's all starting to make sense. Consumers may have found a new place to shop

-- the Web -- but shopping behavior appears to be surprisingly consistent whether clicking from screen to screen or wandering from store to store.

According to data from ebates.com, the cash-back Internet shopping portal, consumers are declaring online shopping ideal for buying some kinds of goods and services -- primarily entertainment and consumer electronics -- but best for just browsing, thank you, for other categories of merchandise, notably apparel and food.

The ebates.com data is derived from more than 450,000 member sessions, believed to be the largest aggregation of data on actual shopping behavior. Of these nearly half-million sessions, some 90,000 purchases were made with lookers turning to buyers at a rate of almost 19 percent. That is, roughly one of every five online browsers actually made a purchase.

ebates.com, which boasts more than 280 participating merchants, analyzed data from its 17 shopping categories by seven demographic traits, and gained a sense of who's spending time and money online and where they are spending it. Among the top discoveries:

-- Overall, buying behavior is shaped more by the products and

services for sale than the design or elegance of a given site;

that is, inviting site design generally isn't sufficient to move

products that consumers simply aren't accustomed to buying online

-- That said, browsers are far more likely to become buyers if the

site displays popular merchandise in an appealing fashion, is

quick to load and refresh, and provides expedited -- and simple

-- check-out procedures 

-- For online shoppers, Web-only merchants are holding their own

against brick-and-mortar retailers who've added a dot-com to

their names

&uot;This is breakthrough data, because it's based on actual shopping behavior from nearly half a million of our members' visits,&uot; said Paul Wasserman, chief executive officer, ebates.com. &uot;We're looking across multiple online shopping categories to determine what's moving and what's not. While clear variations exist from store to store, the patterns for online shopping really have come into focus here.

&uot;Online buyers like the predictability of certain commodity goods and they love the prices -- especially when we're offering cash back on every transaction,&uot; Wasserman said. &uot;In the offline world, you go window-shopping for jewelry but you buy cat food. Increasingly, the same principle applies online.&uot;

Emerging as the top five categories for purchases as a percentage of visits, in descending order are: video/DVD, books/magazines, music, health/beauty and computers/electronics. ebates.com members in a browsing mood were most likely to visit apparel sites and merchants offering toys and games.

Heading the list of other findings:

-- Sites selling videos and DVDs are the commanding leaders among

the 17 categories on ebates.com. These sites had more than twice

as many visitors as the second most popular category,

books/magazines. Significantly, consumers are spending money

before they leave. For every two shoppers who browsed sites

within the video/DVD category, one made a purchase.

-- Promotion for Web-only merchants appears to be paying off. In one

instance, an e-tailer with the tagline &uot;because pets can't drive&uot;

is driving consumers to its site like fleas to a dog; one in

every six made a purchase. A competitor, which had roughly the

same number of visits but not the same level of advertising,

recorded only one sale for every 57 visitors.

-- In the flowers/gifts category -- ranked 7th among merchant

categories on ebates.com, by purchases as a percentage of visits

-- flowers are doing a &uot;blooming&uot; business. The floral business

has long recognized that consumers don't have time to stop and

smell the roses. Online florists take shoppers a step closer;

while visitors can't literally stop and smell, they appear to be

comfortable viewing arrangements and trust that orders will be

delivered, whether across town or across the country. Consumers

definitely prefer to say it with flowers -- in this category, one

in four visitors buys flowers, while just one in 22 purchases

gift items.

-- Success in the health/beauty category -- which is composed almost

exclusively of Web-only sites -- demonstrates the power of

consumer brand loyalty to over-the-counter medications and

drugstore cosmetics. Many also offer discounted prices and the

convenience of delivery, which adds to the category's popularity

as a purchase destination. This also is the lone category in

which women -- who account for less than a third of Internet

shoppers -- make more than half (58 percent) of the purchases.

-- Consumers apparently haven't yet acquired a taste for buying food

and wine online. While there are a handful of exceptions, for the

most part consumers aren't biting. Sites that have either a

retail store or established catalog business (steaks, coffee, and

meat and cheese gift packs) fare well with approximately one in

12 shoppers making a purchase. Specialty food and wine sites

attract visitors looking to &uot;sample,&uot; but not quite ready to

place an order -- only one visitor out of every 65 asks for the

bill.

-- The look, the feel, the fit. Apparel likewise falls short when it

comes to converting browsers to buyers. When it's a matter of

just looking, apparel ranks in the top four categories, but falls

to 14th (followed only by the categories of art/supplies,

telecommunications and travel) when its time to check out.

-- Shopping online remains a guy thing: 71% of online shoppers are

male, 29% are female. Men are largely buying &uot;boy toys&uot; --

videos/DVDs, computers/electronics and music. Again, although

women account for less than a third of online shoppers, they

account for more than half of the purchases in the health and

apparel categories.

About ebates.com

With headquarters in San Francisco, ebates.com is a next-generation Internet shopping portal, which passes the entire rebate achieved through participating merchant affiliate programs to the consumer. Through ebates.com, members receive cash back of up to 25 percent on every purchase from more than 200 merchants. In addition, members can earn additional cash back by referring others to ebates.com.

Launched in May 1999, ebates.com was founded by Paul Wasserman and Alessandro Isolani, two former deputy district attorneys in the Silicon Valley. USA Today called ebates.com &uot;the best story of the @d:tech SF show.&uot; The ebates.com site ranks among the Net's top five affiliate sites, and the company has also been named a Red Herring &uot;Catch of the Day.&uot; ebates.com is funded by Foundation Capital of Menlo Park, Calif.