New Delhi, June 11 (IANS) Undeterred by the slowdown, Indians continued to spend online in the last quarter of 2008 to emerge as the third highest spenders on the Internet in the Asia Pacific region, a report released Thursday by electronic payments giant VISA said.
The report said Indian online shoppers increased their purchases by 42 percent, or by about $1,000 per shopper to $3,450, compared to the $2,420 spent in the previous quarter.

This made them the third highest spenders in the Asia Pacific region in the last fiscal’s last quarter, VISA said. Singapore with an online buy of $4,018 per shopper and Hong Kong with $3,791 topped the charts.

The survey was carried out among 9,142 Internet users aged between 18 to 49 years across six countries and territories from the Asia Pacific region.

Among the categories surveyed, all top three online spend areas were travel-related services.

According to the survey, the highest areas of spending in the past 12 months were airline tickets, which accounted for an average $970 per shopper annually. This was followed by online travel agents ($647) and travel accommodation ($527).

Said country manager of Visa South Asia Uttam Nayak: “Consumers are tuned to the convenience of shopping for travel services online.”

The trend to shop online looks set to continue with 81 percent of respondents stating they were likely to shop online again in the next 12 months.

Koreans (96 percent), Japanese (90 percent) and Australians (83 percent) are most likely to make purchases again online, the survey said.