DM News: Pew: New England, CA Internet Users More Likely to Shop

Bustling New England,
e-commerce hub

While more than half of New Englanders and Californians have purchased something online recently, only a little more than a third of Midwesterners have done so. A new Pew study contains this and hundreds of other interesting tidbits on e-commerce.

The study found that, despite the fact that both California and New England had greater Internet penetration than the Midwest, this did not account for the difference. Having lived in both of the regions with the higher buying ratios, as well as the Midwest, this reporter might suggest another cause: road traffic. This theory may be supported by the findings that the New York-New Jersey area has an even higher rate of shopping than that of New England, as does the Washington D.C. area, despite having demographics that would otherwise seem unpromising for e-commerce.