Tag: Accenture

Internet shopping might always have suited the reluctant male shopper – he could stay seated, beer in one hand, keyboard at the other, and shop from the comfort of his armchair at any time of day or night. However, it is only recently that men have outpaced women in their use of online shopping.

Internet shopping might always have suited the reluctant male shopper – he could stay seated, beer in one hand, keyboard at the other, and shop from the comfort of his armchair at any time of day or night. However, it is only recently that men have outpaced women in their use of online shopping.

A survey by management consultants Accenture suggests that most men (56 per cent) today prefer shopping online to the high street, and now premium fashion sites are responding.

“Shopping for fashion online is a new experience for many men – they have to be educated to convert to it and, unlike women, the media hasn’t been busy bombarding them with ‘the new look’ on a weekly basis,” says Ali Khan, founder of menalamode.com, a site set up as a men’s alternative to net-a-porter.com. “Lots of retailers have been reluctant to cater online to the male fashion customer when women have been so ready to buy online. But it’s changing.”

Certainly, internet fashion retail is booming, with, according to market researchers Nielsen, 36 per cent of consumers with internet access having bought clothes, footwear or accessories online in the last quarter of 2007, almost double the figure two years ago. That suggests fashion is second only to books as the most popular internet purchase.