About 15 in every 100 adult New Zealand shoppers with Internet access are looking at items in stores – then buying online.

About seven in 100 are buying online from a different retailer than the one who showed them or let them try on items.

A new HorizonPoll survey of 2,425 New Zealanders nationwide finds that 14.6% of adults are indulging in what is known overseas as “showrooming”.  That equates to about 425,000 adult shoppers.

After visiting a store:

•         5.6% of adults with internet access , bought online from the same retailer in New Zealand (about 159,000 people) 

•         5.9% bought online from a different retailer in New Zealand (about 168,000 people), and 

•         3.1% bought from a different retailer overseas (88,000 people).

Overall, the survey finds 74.5% of adults with access to the internet are buying retail goods online in New Zealand, 41.1% overseas. Only 20.2% of adults with access don’t buy retail goods online.

Horizon Research Manager Grant McInman says the survey finds overall that more than 2.1 million adults in New Zealand with Internet access are retail shopping online from local retailers.

In comments to Horizon, those shopping offshore say that they have little sympathy for local retailers who don’t compete on price.

Some retailers have reportedly considered charging a fee for trying on clothes in store. Horizon says this might concern the 5.6% of adults who are viewing or trying items – then buying from the same retailer online later.