Partner Article

Shop or buy?

The theory that women prefer to explore when shopping, whereas men like to go straight to the product they want and ideally be informed about it on the way, is one that seems to be supporting the current growth in menswear sales online. Online sales of men’s wear increased 9.9 percent in 2011, with women’s wear only just pipping it to the post at 10.2 percent!

Apparently men spend 30 percent less time browsing than women, having a much more utilitarian approach to online shopping. However, there’s another reason for this spike in interest in menswear. There’s a new bracket of men now shopping too. You know, the ones who previously complained about going, finding it too time-consuming and if forced to go, were frequently found looking pained on ‘bored man’ seats in stores? Well it seems they’ve succumbed online too and are now actually clothes shopping for themselves – the ease, convenience and anonymity of the online experience, attracting them.

And as a result the statistics of menswear sales are rising. The men’s clothing market was worth about $429 billion in 2011 according to Euromonitor International, with online sales accounting for 5.1 percent. With women’s being at 5.6 percent, this is a good incentive for online men’s wear merchants to make sure that going forward, they understand men’s online behaviour, fine-tune their marketing speak and get their merchandise mix just right.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kathy Heslop .