Dwelling on these as well as other findings Lane Leskela, Research Director, e-Market Intelligence Services Asia/Pacific at Gartner pointed out that 75 per cent of the users in India were more comfortable buying a service rather than a physical good off the Net-even if service was as simple as movie tickets bought online. In order of preference the items for online shopping were movie tickets, books, audio cassettes and software (user applications).

"A strong counter trend where India is concerned is the very small user base for credit cards," said Leskela. On the issue of the most efficient vehicle to spread awareness or create branding for a site, the survey shows that word-of-mouth is the most effective strategy in getting visitors to the site followed by newspaper articles and then print ads. Surprise: billboards figure last on the list. "All findings related to methodology for creating awareness have been absolutely the same anywhere in the world for countries at the same level of development," explains Leskela. On the issue of online advertising, the study indicates that less than one clickthrough (0.74) on banner ads was registered per user per week. Again internationally, the figure does not exceed two clickthroughs per user per week according to Leskela. Another dampener: 54 per cent of Indian users surveyed could not recollect going to a new site in the seven days preceding the question.

"This is indicative of a user base which prefers select familiarity and repeated use," says Leskela. Interestingly, Indian also rated "Useful Content" as the number one preference in a Website which is possibly indicative of users trying to find a way to skirt the cumbersome download times which is a result of low bandwidth.

"This is likely to change once the bandwidth problems are sorted out," says Leskela.

An astonishing discovery was the fact that aesthetics and colour were least important when it came to ranking preferences on Websites. This is significant for users, as this factor is very high on the priority list when it comes to creating Websites.

The study found that almost 60 per cent of all surfers used cybercafes to surf while 30 per cent surfed from multiple locations including home, office and cybercafes. "The price factor is very crucial here, a large number of the surfers find the cybercafe most economical, typically, as we've seen in other Asian markets, this population slowly shifts to surfing out of the office," said Leskela.

Finally, of the non-buyers who expressed a distinct interest in buying over the Net, over one fourth have a credit card and this presents an immediate market opportunity according to the Gartner India SHARP study.