Study: U.S. Online Sales Pale

Friday, November 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” The e-commerce boom may have originated in the United States, but the Germans and Koreans have a bigger appetite for buying certain goods online, a study released Wednesday said.

The study by research firm International Data Corp. surveyed 30,000 regular online consumers in 26 countries on their willingness to buy items from four different categories: books and magazines, music, electronics and clothing.

Consumers in 16 of the countries polled were more willing to purchase books and magazines online than consumers in the U.S. Among the countries besting the U.S. were Brazil, Germany, Korea and China.

Eight countries, including India, beat the U.S. in the music category. But the U.S. is still one of the most attractive markets for selling electronics online, though Korea, Brazil, and Singapore have enough consumers willing to purchase these goods that e-tailers should not ignore them, according to Charles Baxter, chief executive officer at eTranslate, Inc., a Web globalization consulting firm which commissioned the study.

Buying apparel online is still a hard sell, but Japan, Germany and Korea are among several countries that have a higher percentage of Internet users compared to the U.S. Only about 7 percent of U.S. consumers polled said they were willing to buy clothing online.

In addition, with U.S. online sales growth slowing, IDC gave its insights into which global markets represents the greatest overall marketing opportunity.

U.S.'s e-commerce sales are expected to increase by only 3.75 percent to $427.2 billion over the next four years, with worldwide market share eroding to 44 percent from 62 percent. That compares to Korea, which is expected to see a 39.7 percent gain to $41.9 billion; Germany, a 12.7 increase to $46.6 billion; and France, whose online sales should skyrocket 29.6 percent to reach $28.3 billion.