6. Busy Women Choose the Internet

A report from Nielsen//NetRatings and Washingtonpost.com indicates that 60% of working women using the Internet at work feel there is not enough time in the day for personal activities and issues, compared to just 48% of their male counterparts.

Nonetheless, these women are voracious media consumers, especially when it comes to the Internet as 48% have increased their Internet usage over the past year and 27% say they are not at all likely?to give up the Net in order to save time. It is therefore no surprise that 63% of these women told Nielsen and Washingtonpost.com they would definitely?include the Internet in a marketing campaign targeted to their demographic segment.

Indeed the Internet was most cited, compared to other forms of media, by women using the Internet from work as a very important?source for making retail shopping decisions. Nearly 30% of women told Nielsen and Washingtonpost.com that the Internet was very important for retail-related decisions compared to just 6% who said the same thing about TV.

The Nielsen and Washingtonpost.com report is based on e-mail surveys, collected and analyzed in early February 2004, from 825 women and 226 men who regularly use the Internet at work.

Giving some background to the Nielsen and Washingtonpost.com findings, eMarketer determined in January 2003 that there were 50.1 million Internet users at work in the US. As of the end of 2003, Harris Interactive determined there were slightly more women than men online, with women Net users representing 52% of the adult population and 51% of the adult online population.

For further insight into targeting women online, stay tuned to eMarketer for its upcoming North American Internet Access: Demographics & Usage report.

[eMarketer.com] March 31, 2004