Online traffic to men’s fashion grew over the summer, even as traffic to women’s fashion fell, new research suggests.
Price comparison provider Become Europe found that UK traffic to menswear items rose by 25% over July and August 2013. At the same time, traffic to women’s fashion fell by 2%.
“This summer saw an unusual disparity for online sales between women and men’s fashion in the UK,” said Michael Rausch, general manager at Become Europe, whose UK clients include MoneySupermarket.com, Best-Price.com and Twenga.co.uk. “Women’s fashion was the hardest hit category; the flagging traffic could be down to women holding back on non-essential purchases.”
He added: “Male and female shopping habits will naturally be different; industry research reveals that 85% of men prefer to shop online, perhaps due to the convenience of the shopping experience.”
Results from other European markets showed that in Germany, menswear traffic increased by 2% over the summer period, while womenswear traffic rose by 18%. Italian online fashion traffic as a whole dropped by 15%. The fall was put down to the suggestion that Italian consumers tend not to shop online during the holidays.
