A new survey conducted by IBM has revealed that there is a degree of disconnection between the number of people who say they like safe shopping online and those who actually do it on a regular basis, according to Internet Retailing.

Forty three per cent of respondents said that they are more interested in using the internet to shop for products than heading to the high street, but just 29 per cent said that the last item they purchased came from an online outlet.

The UK actually has a higher percentage of regular online shoppers than other countries, with 35 per cent of British consumers questioned stating that the previous transaction they carried out was through the web.

This represents a small rise from the results of the same study conducted last year, so although online sales are growing, it seems that people are still willing to shop using both the internet and at bricks and mortar stores to meet their retail needs.

IBM analysts found that depending on the product category being discussed, this gap between intent and actual buying habits can be very big indeed. DIY supplies, for example, are far more commonly bought in-store rather than via safe shopping online, even if many people say that they prefer to use the web for such purchases.

Report spokesperson, Kali Klena, said that this gap between e-commerce enthusiasm and actual shopping behaviour extends into other areas of digital retail as well. In particular, the number of people who say that they do not mind if retailers use GPS data from their smartphones to provide them with bespoke services is much higher than the actual number who go through with this.

Consumers can clearly be fickle, but the growth of e-commerce means that retailers cannot afford to ignore their needs.