Forrester survey: luxury consumers more likely to shop online

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A recent study by Forrester Research has found that affluent consumers in the luxury goods category are much more likely to search and shop online. People with investable assets greater than $1 million scored 21% higher than other Internet users on "buy-to-look" ratio (measuring Web research browsing against purchase follow-through).

Additional findings from this survey of more than 2,000 affluent US households were as follows:
* Dollar millionaires are 16% more likely than other Internet users to research products online on a regular basis.
* These affluent consumers expect to spend an average of $100 per month online this year, nearly twice the amount of other Web shoppers.
* Two-thirds own a personal computer (with two the average per household), used mostly for going online.
* 56% go online, compared with 43% of the general population.
* Although millionaires are notably brand conscious, they are likely to be deterred by sites catering solely to the wealthy and are just as inclined to seek good value as are those with smaller chequebooks: 58% are value focused,
42% are convenience focused, 90% pay attention to shipping fees, and 43% use
price-comparison sites such as dealtime.com or mySimon.com.