Consumers Still Prefer to Shop in Stores

According to a new report from The NPD Group, many U.S. consumers remain reluctant to purchase certain consumer electronics products online, even after using the Web to find out more about them. For some products, that makes sense. In other cases the reluctance is harder to figure out.

While 52 percent of consumers would seek out information about smartphones on the Web, just 23 percent could imagine themselves going online to purchase one. That might makes a great deal of sense to you. A smart phone is a highly personal item.

In some other cases, the findings are more puzzling. The research suggests that televisions are the fourth most-likely item that consumers research online prior to purchasing (56 percent); however, it's the least likely electronics product that consumers would actually purchase online (19 percent). TVs aren't personal. On the other hand, it's a bigger-ticket item than many other products, so that could explain the hesitance.

In contrast more people (66 percent) do both their research (66 percent) and expect to make an actual purchase (34 percent) online for PCs then for any other CE device.

Top consumer electronics products consumers were "extremely" or "very likely" to purchase online, included the following:

• Computer software | 34%
• Computer | 34%
• eReader | 32%
• Digital Camera | 30%
• Computer accessories/peripherals | 30%
• Tablet computer | 29%
• Printer | 24%
• Smartphone/mobile phone | 23%
• Camcorder | 21%
• Blu-ray player | 21%
• Home audio | 20%
• Television | 19%

People still prefer to buy at retail locations

Amazon Simplifies Checkout

Amazon has made it easier for merchants to use Amazon checkout without leaving the shopping context.

New Taxes on Amazon in Colorado; Amazon Stops Supporting Colo. Sales Associates

Economists are uniformly agreed on one essential fact of economic life: when you raise the price of some product, you get lower sales. That suggests lower sales for Amazon in Colorado, since the state has now imposed new taxes on Amazon sales associates in the state.

One can argue about the utility and fairness of sales taxes on Internet commerce. But it is hard to argue that sales will be under greater pressure now that the prices for virtually all Amazon products now are going to cost buyers more.

Amazon says the problem is that the Colorado law increases regulatory compliance burdens in an attempt to induce Amazon to collect sales taxes, something it says it will not do.

For that reason, Amazon will stop paying commissions to Colorado-based associates for providing leads that turn into sales, and will shift such payments to partners in other states, or will sell directly from the Amazon site.

"As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly," Amazon says.

"The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates," Amazon says.

Associates in Colorado have had their accounts closed as of March 8, 2010.


North Carolina and Hawaii also have levied similar taxes on sales of Amazon products made from affiliated in-state Web sites. The taxes apparently do not cover sales made directly from Amazon's own site.

"The sad irony of this issue is that the 'Amazon Tax,' as the North Carolina General Assembly calls it, will not collect any taxes; it will only cause lost revenue for North Carolina businesses," says Bob Butler, BestThinking.com CEO, a former Amazon affiliate based in Cary, N.C.


New Taxes on Amazon in Colorado