DECEMBER 2007 BEACON
Affluent Americans will Grow to Represent 27% of the Online Community by 2011
Do you sell products or services targeted at an affluent customer? Then you may want to pay attention to a new report from eMarketer.
In a report released last month by online market research company eMarketer, the makeup of the online community is dissected, analyzed, and trends are projected over the next five years. The report, titled "Affluent Internet Users: How the Rich Live Online" contains some interesting, and some startling results that suggest you may need to reassess your Web presence and online marketing activities to better address changing demographics of the online community!
According to this research, affluent Americans (defined as those with an annual household income over $100,000) will grow to represent 27% of the entire online community by 2011. In 2006, affluents represented about 19.1% of the U.S. population...but a healthy 24% of all Internet users. eMarketer forecasts a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% which will result in 57.1 million affluent Internet users in 2011 vs. 2006's 43.7 million.
And the study goes on to show that not only are there more affluent users online, but also that those affluents are using the Internet to do more activites online. Also, affluents are spending more time online than the non-affluents...citing research from Jupiter Research, eMarketer says affluents spend an average of 17 hours a week online vs. 14 hours for non-affluents.
Even though the study is primarily targeted at the online merchant, many in the custom integration industry will find this report's conclusions helpful as part of their planning process. The fact remains that the affluent are predisposed to purchase luxury goods and services and much of the report's data helps define the affluent segment and their online useage.
Consider the fact that affluents conduct significant product research online. Automotive related websites, for example, find that more than 27% of their visitors are in the affluent category...the largest of any income category.
For those of us who target goods and services at the affluent consumer segment, this report shows clearly that our target customer is a significant share of the online community and will continue to grow to be even more so in the future. It also shows that affluents increasingly use the Internet to research and make purchase decisions about goods and services.
Have you targeted this affluent segment with your online marketing activities? Does your website provide the type of environment and user experience that is responsive to this market segment?