第三个原因更加使传统的零售业头疼。尽管有强大的品牌号召力，与供货商及消费者有着良好的关系，他们仍然发现同电子商务进行竞争非常困难。传统零售业面临着难以逾越的障碍。商家面向消费者的在线购物所产生的最大的影响或许并不在于其规模，而是它改变零售业游戏规则的方式——而到现在为止，传统零售业一直是这套游戏规则的最大赢家，他们显然感到困惑。
虽然如此，我们仍然可以从在线购物的业务规模及其增长速度来判断它的发展趋势。根据弗里斯特调查公司的调查，2002年美国商家面向消费者的在线购物交易额大约为200亿美元，2004年达到1，840亿美元。其他一些公司例如朱彼特通信公司和美国集团公司通过分析也得出类似的结论。另一家咨询公司厄尼斯特&扬公司的调查表明1999年有三千九百万美国人通过网络购物，其中大约一半花费了500美元以上。几年之后，美国5％的零售市场将被网络占据，其他一些富裕的国家也会紧随其后。到2010年，一家投资银行古得曼·塞奇预测，电子购物将占据零售市场的15～20％。因特网最大的门户网站Yahoo！的总裁杰夫·马莱预言在线零售业将像email一样快速发展。
Children Are Keen Internet Shoppers
Children are keen internet shoppers with more than half having bought something online，research has shown.
Around 53per cent of children aged between seven and 16said they had purchasedpurchase something over the internet，10per cent more than in 2004，according to Halifax.
Boys were more likely to be internet shoppers than girls，with 60per cent of boys saying they had bought items online，compared with just 46per cent of girls.
More than half of children preferred buying things over the internet to buying them on the high street，while 61per cent of those who had purchased things online said it was easier to buy certain items over the internet than in shops.
However，boys were more likely to always prefer buying things online，while girls were more likely to still like the actual high street shopping experience.
The most common items for young people to buy over the Internet were CDs and tapes or computer games and equipmentequipment，both at 45per cent，while 43per cent of children had bought DVDs and videos and 37per cent had bought gifts.
Children spent most money on computer games and equipment，with 13per cent saying they spent more than 20pounds online on these items a year，followed by 12per cent who spent more than 20pounds a year on mobile phones and 11per cent who spent the same amount on clothes.
Cheryl Millington，head of savings at Halifax，said：“We are not only seeing the emergenceemergence of a generation of young consumersconsumer，but also keen cyberconsumers. While children often lead the way in internet use within the family home，parents have an important role to play in ensuringensure they stay safe while online.”
青少年成为网上购物大军中的新生力量
一项调查结果显示，英国青少年正逐步表现出对网上购物的强烈兴趣，他们当中超过半数的人曾经有过在线购物的经历。
根据英国哈里法克斯银行（Halifax）的调查，在7岁到16岁这一年龄段的孩子中，有53％的人说曾通过互联网买过东西，比2004年高10%。
男孩儿成为网上购物者的可能性要高于女孩儿，60％受调查的男孩儿称自己曾经在网上买过所需物品，而女孩儿仅为46％。
与去繁华的商业街购物相比，半数以上的孩子更愿意通过互联网购物。在有过网上购物经历的孩子中，61％的人表示网上购物的便捷性要胜过商场。
女孩儿似乎依然更热衷于到那些繁华的商业街上亲身体会现场购物的乐趣。
在青少年通过网络购买的物品中，最常见的是CD、录音带或者是电脑游戏、游戏相关设备，买上述几种物品的占到了总人数的45％，购买DVD和录像带的比例为43％，还有37％的人在网上买过各种礼品。
青少年们很愿意把钱用在购买电脑游戏及相关设备上，13％的人表示自己每年通过网络花在这些物品上的钱超过了20英镑；此外，12％的人每年花在购买手机上的钱超过了20英镑，还有11％的人把同样多的钱花在了购买服装上。
哈里法克斯银行储蓄部的主管谢丽尔·米灵顿表示：“我们不应只看到新一代消费者已经浮出水面，我们还应意识到这些人都是网上购物的狂热发烧友。由于一般情况下青少年总是一个家庭在互联网应用上的先行者，所以在保证孩子安全使用网络这一点上，父母们可谓责任重大。”
Leisure Pursuits of Today’s Young Man
Note to the television networks：Pete Brandel is not missing.He’s right here，but like a lot of other 20something men he’s just not watching as much TV.
Mr.Brandel，a 24yearold real estate agent in Chicago，says that these days he looks to the Internet for news and entertainmententertainment.Television，he says，is bogged down by commercials and teasersteaser that waste his time.
The television industry was shaken last October when the ratings from Nielsen Media Research showed that a huge part of a highly prized sliceslice of the American population was watching less television.As the fall TV season began，viewership among men from 18to 34fell 12percent compared with the year before，Nielsen reported.And for the youngest group of adult men，those 18to 24，the decline was a steepersteeper 20percent.
And the evidence is accumulatingaccumulate that the behavior of guys like Mr.Brandel is changing faster than once thought.The rapid expansion of highspeed Internet access lets the computer become the video jukeboxjukebox that Mr.Brandel uses to watch comedy clips.The seemingly inexhaustibleinexhaustible appetite for computer games，DVD players，music and video filesharing—and，yes，online pornographypornography —all contribute to the trend，these experts say.While no one activity is enough to account for the drop that Nielsen reported，all of them together create a vast cloud of diversiondiversion that has drawn men inexorably away from television.
That is understandableunderstandable，experts say，given that nearly 75percent of males 18to 34have Internet access，according to the latest figures from comScore Media Metrix，making them the most wired segmentsegment of the population.By comparison，57percent of men from 35to 44are online，comScore found in research for the Online Publishers Association，which is releasing the results today.
Between the allure of highspeed Internet services，computer games and other activities，“you begin to have the ability to get entertained and distracteddistracted in a million ways，and not just television，”said Rishad Tobaccowala，an executive with the Starcom MediaVest Group，a company that advises advertisers on where to put their money.
David F.Poltrack，executive vice president for research at CBS，says that the trend of young men watching somewhat less television is clear，but that the Nielsen numbers still do not add up.The effect “should have been seen gradually over time，”he said，“not all of a sudden.”
年轻人拒绝电视青睐网络
现在很多二十多岁的年轻男女都不太愿意看电视，相反，他们对于上网浏览新闻或是下载音乐却是情有独钟、乐此不疲。24岁的芝加哥市房地产代理佩特·伯兰德尔（Pete Brandel）就表示，他更喜欢上网查看新闻而不是看电视，因为电视上太多的广告是在浪费时间。
Nielsen Media研究公司的数据显示，美国公众当中青年精英喜欢看电视的人越来越少，与去年相比，年龄在18到34岁的男性当中，爱看电视的比例下降了12%，而年龄在18到24岁的年轻男性当中，这一比例更是下降了20%。对于电视行业而言，上述数据无异于致命一击。
分析人士称，互联网的日益普及使得年轻人更加习惯于在网上打游戏、浏览体育新闻以及与好友在线聊天等。再加上宽带接入服务的扩展，计算机已经成了一个视频“百宝盒”，越来越丰富的网上游戏、DVD电影、音乐以及动画，甚至包括色情照片在内等内容均促使网络更加受到欢迎。专家称，上述因素中的任何一个都不足以导致年轻人爱看电视的比例下降，但它们合在一起却导致青年一族“无情地”远离电视。
