Scarborough Research, a consumer research firm has released a report that finds that eBay is popular in the South.
The report found Charleston, West Virginia to be the number one local U.S. market for eBay visitors. Forty-four percent of adults in Charleston who accessed the Internet in the past month were eBay visitors.
Other Southern cities with top eBay markets include Lexington, Kentucky, Memphis, Tennessee, and Knoxville, Tennessee, with 40 percent of Internet users in those cities using the site in the past month.
Nationally 31 percent of Internet users visit eBay. Scarborough’s local markets are based on Designated Market Areas, which include a city and its surrounding counties.
“Many of the market areas where eBay ranks highly include more rural counties, so Internet shopping may provide a convenient way for consumers who live in more outlying areas to satisfy their retail needs,” said Gary Meo, senior vice president, Internet services, Scarborough Research.
“Utilizing the Internet — a global medium — to target and engage consumers locally is considered a top priority among leading Internet companies. Local information that clues in to the unique lifestyles, demographics, retail patterns and media habits of Internet users is useful to any brand seeking to expand its business online through local targeting.”
The study also found that eBay users are some of the Internet’s top spenders, and they are more likely than other Internet users to be young and male. eBay users are 37 percent more likely than the average Internet user to have spent $2,500 or more online during the past year. They are 16 percent more likely to be ages of 18-24, and 12 percent more likely to be male.
