I remember the fearless forecasts made by Web commerce drumbeaters back in the 90s – that the Web will revolutionize the way we shop, and we will now choose to shop in front of our computers instead of going to brick n’ mortar stores. Well, it did happen — but only for some.

In fact, the magazine Internet Retailer says that the retail web industry is “persistently faced” with the 40% obstacle — “about 40% of consumers do not buy online.” This view was shared by the latest results of the Retail Forward Inc.’s E-tailing Shopper Update, which showed that the number of consumers who went online to shop even decreased from 68% in April 2004 to 63% in April 2005.

So why are people not shopping on the Web? According to the study, following are the reasons why consumers are not shopping online:

• Prefer in-store personal interaction (41%)
• Shipping is too expensive (36%)
• Can’t feel/touch/see product (34%)
• Concerned about security of personal data (29%)
• Concerned about privacy (28%)
• Returns are too difficult (25%)
• Online prices not competitive with offline (11%)
• Not enough time during the day (8%)
• No high speed connection at home (6%)
• Sites are difficult to shop (5%)
• No Internet access at home (2%)
• Other (16%)

If you are selling on the Web, it may be beneficial to know the reasons above in order to understand the concerns of your customers. And who knows, you just might be able to lure those 40% to shop online!