The future of shopping - Blowfish

Japan, Inc., April, 2003

How will you buy your veggies in 2005? The Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living asked 420 adults in the greater Tokyo area. At present, all of them said they just go to the store and carry them home. But in three years' time, 13.7 percent of the subjects ventured that they would be shopping for groceries via the Internet.

When it came to banking in 2005, 44.6 percent said they expect to be able to use either their mobile phones or a PC to make transactions. Another 12.4 percent said they thought regular phones would suffice for that purpose. Shopping for home appliances? While 96.6 percent currently do it the old-fashioned way, 29.8 percent said they expected to use either a PC or a cellphone. For hotel, rail and plane reservations, the figure using Net communications is expected to rise from 19.5 percent in 2002 to a whopping 90 percent by 2005.