According to a global online survey conducted by leading research firm Nielsen, more than 85 per cent of internet users in the world are purchasing goods or services online, while credit card has emerged as the most famous payment method for such purchases.

In the survey, as many as 84 per cent of online shoppers from India said they have used credit cards for such transactions, next only to 91 per cent in Turkey and 86 per cent in Ireland.

India shared the third position with the UAE, which also has 84 per cent of online buyers using a credit card.

“Shopping on the Internet with the ease of a credit card is especially appealing to consumers in emerging markets who simply cannot find or buy items they want in their retail trade. The Internet has opened up a whole new world of shopping for these consumers,” Nielsen’s US Customized Research Vice-President Bruce Paul said.

The survey found that credit cards are by far the most common method of payment for online purchases with 60 per cent of global online consumers having used their credit card for a recent online purchase. Among the various credit cards, more than half or about 53 per cent used a Visa card.

Globally, more than half of Internet users have made at least one purchase online in the past month.

Most popular purchased items over internet are books (41 per cent purchased in the past three months), followed by articles like clothing/accessories/shoes (36 per cent), videos / DVDs / games and airline tickets constituted about 24 per cent.

More than 70 per cent of Indian netizens and over 60 per cent internet users in Ireland and UAE said they bought airline tickets/reservations on the Internet in the last three months, making travel the fourth most popular shopping category on the web, the survey said.

“Travel is a category extremely suited to the Internet due to the latter’s ability to provide efficient access to an extremely wide range of comparable information. Whilst certain areas of the travel industry were initially slow to utilize the benefits of the Internet, it is now one of the undoubted success stories of online, playing an integral part in the arrangements and experience of today’s traveler,” Jonathan Carson, President International Nielsen Online said.

The top ten online retailers, according to Nielsen Online December 2007, are eBay, Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart Stores, Best Buy, Circuit City, Sears, ToysRUs, Overstock.com and JCPenney.

Internet is no longer a niche technology, as it is an integral part of modern life, the survey said, adding that consumers turn to this option as it is more convenient and buyers can also carry out research before buying any product, Nielsen said.

Within two years, the number of global online shoppers has increased by around 40 per cent (to 875 million) from 627 million.