Apr 19 2000: There are six distinct categories of online consumers and Internet marketers should focus on one or two of these groups rather than spreading their efforts too thinly.

According to “All Visitors Are Not Created Equal”, a new study from Media Metrix and McKinsey, every online consumer falls into one of the following categories: Simplifiers, Surfers, Connectors, Bargainers, Routiners and Sportsters. Simplifiers want convenient and direct Internet shopping. They only spend 7 hours a month online but they account for half of all Internet transactions. Retailers must provide this group with “end-to-end convenience” and prove that shoppers will save time by buying at their sites. Only 8 percent of active Internet users are Surfers but they account for 32 percent of all time spent on the Net and look at 4 times more pages than other users. Surfers are attracted to constantly updated sites with innovative design and features. Connectors tend to be new to the Internet and they are less likely to shop online, preferring to use chatrooms or send free greetings cards. Companies with strong bricks-and-mortar brands should target this group, which constitutes 36 percent of active users, as newbies are more likely to trust a brand they are familiar with offline. Another 8 percent of users are categorised as Bargainers, who have an unerring instinct for cheap deals. More than half of all eBay users are Bargainers. They enjoy ferreting out bargains and have a strong desire to be part of a community. Both Routiners and Sportsters use the Internet primarily for the content it provides. Routiners tend towards news and financial sites while Sportsters like visiting sports and entertainment sites. The main challenge for marketers is to exploit the high traffic to these sites and turn visitors into customers.