'Fashionably late' loses
luster in pixel form

Shoppers are taking on average 34 hours and 19 minutes from the time they first visit an e-commerce site to when they finally make a purchase, according to a new analysis of 2.6 million online sales by ScanAlert, MarketingCharts writes. Data presented in the report, "Digital Window Shopping: The Long Delay Before Buying," shows the delay is now more than half a day (80 percent) longer than the 19 hour 11 min average that ScanAlert reported in 2005.

When compared to the 2005 data, delays are increasing for all time periods:

"The primary reasons for the increase over 2005 are greater sourcing choices, and the availability of broadband access at work and in the home," said report author Nigel Ravenhill, ScanAlert's director of marketing communications.

"It is a bit of a paradox for retailers, because while faster internet access allows you to complete your order quickly, it also enables you to jump rapidly from site to site. Combine that with the increasing popularity of shopping search engines, and you have the ideal environment for increased digital window shopping."

"The most notable increase is clearly the behavior of the 'cautious shoppers,' those shoppers who take more than three days to purchase," said Ravenhill, adding that they are becoming even more cautious.

MarketingCharts has more findings from the study.