Survey Finds Older Generation Buying Digital Cameras Over The Internet

One-third of digital camera owners age 51 years and older purchased their last digital camera over the Internet, according to a survey conducted by Lyra Research Inc., Newtonville, Mass., USA. The study The Digital Camera Consumer: Profiles in Usage also found the Internet (25 percent) was the most popular channel used to buy digital cameras followed by consumer electronics stores (22 percent) and mass merchants (20 percent). Lyra conducted the survey of 727 digital camera owners via the Internet this past spring.

"The purchasing behavior of people in the 51+ age group is especially interesting because this age group grew up without the Internet," commented Edward Lee, director of Lyra's Digital Photography Advisory Service. "We expected their shopping experience would predominately involve in-store purchasing."

Numbers from the Marketing Research department at Photo Marketing Association International, Jackson, Mich., USA, agree. The Internet (23 percent) was the most popular channel for a digital camera purchase for all age groups in 2000, followed by electronics/video stores (20.4 percent), according to its 2000 Digital Imaging Marketing Association Digital Imaging Consumer Survey and 2001 PMA Camera/Camcorder, Digital Imaging Survey. PMA also reported the average age for a digital camera purchaser in 2000 was 45.