rnet to research products and 52 per cent of those buy the item in-store. The survey found that only one in 10 consumers bought solely online, while 18 per cent bought online and instore equally. While some commentators have expressed surprise at the low level of online purchasing revealed by the survey – Church says the results say a lot about the New Zealand shopping culture. “Kiwis are innately pragmatic people who see the internet as simply another part of the overall shopping experience. We like the convenience of the net for ‘simple’ purchases – but we also recognise that it has its limitations”. He cites immediacy, safety, personal service and ‘the experience’ of instore shopping as reasons why people will be in no hurry to replace it with the net anytime soon. “For example – we might buy an older CD, DVD or book title online – because these purchases are ‘uncomplicated’ and we know what we’re getting – but even with these types of products, we’ll still go in-store to buy a new release because we want it ‘now’”. Church also says that he disagrees with recent comments from British born James McComb, online communications manager for appliance retailer Noel Leeming. McComb said that “The natural thing to do in the UK is to search, find, click, buy and have it delivered. New Zealand just hasn’t caught on to that yet.” But Church said he suspected that this had a lot more to do with British weather than any edge that British shoppers had over kiwi shoppers. “New Zealanders are the fastest and most enthusiastic adopters of new technology in the world – and new social trends catch on much more quickly, here, than they do in Europe – so if kiwis aren’t jumping into online purchasing in the same numbers as brits you can be sure that there’s a very good reason for it”.