Consumer Confidence in E-Commerce Declining

Less than a year ago, all the experts were saying that that e-commerce had and was growing at a rapid pace. Based on a survey conducted by Consumer Reports Webwatch, this might be changing and one of the reasons is the fear of identity theft.

Here is some background information on Consumer Reports Webwatch:

"Consumer Reports WebWatch is a project of Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org, and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Open Society Institute. The Consumer Reports WebWatch site is not-for-profit and its content is free."

The survey revealed, the following trends:

"KEY FINDINGS
Consumer Reports WebWatch obtained telephone
interviews with 1,501 U.S.-based adult Internet
users and discovered:

■ Nine out of 10 U.S Internet users over 18
have made changes to their behavior due to
fear of identity theft.

■ Of those changes, 30 percent say they have
reduced their overall use of the Internet.

■ 25 percent say they stopped buying things
online.

■ Among those who shop online, 29 percent say
have cut back on how often they buy things."

Consumer Reports Webwatch has an excellent website, which can be viewed at: http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/index.cfm.

The actual report, which covers a lot more than identity theft concerns can be viewed by clicking on the title of this post.

These statistics indicate to me that fraud on the internet is causing more than direct financial losses. In fact, if it is causing a loss in "sales" to retailers, it is now showing the ability to have a negative effect on the economy in general.

Large corporations are and should continue to increase consumer confidence in the way they protect their customer's information. Should they fail to do this, it is likely to take a toll on their bottom lines.