Women are far more likely than men to have purchased apparel (whether men’s or women’s) within the last year. For example, 80% of women purchased undergarments or nightwear (the most popular clothing category for both men and women) as compared to 53% of men. This trend was easily distinguishable; women were at least nine percentage points more likely to purchase an item than men for every segment except accessories. Elevated purchasing rates among women are partially due to the fact that women commonly purchase clothing for men and children in online shopping.
An interesting anomaly is accessories, as the two genders had similar purchasing rates (32% of women to 30% of men). Women have a wide variety of non-clothing items they can accessorize outfits with (such as jewelry, hair bands, and purses), whereas men are limited to clothing accessories such as hats, gloves, and neckwear. Women’s purchases of these non-clothing accessories compete with their clothing accessory purchases, which depresses purchasing rates of women’s clothing accessories down to similar levels as men’s.
Women are More Engaged in Apparel Purchasing than Men
Notably, women shoppers are more engaged than men into online shopping on all three of the following measures:
- “Price” was an important factor to 70% of women shoppers, compared to 55% of men shoppers.
- Some 67% of women thought that “Fits well” was important to their clothing purchasing, compared to 56% of male shoppers.
- Some 60% of women shoppers thought that apparel that “Looks good” was important, while only 47% of men picked it as a factor.
While women are more engaged online shoppers, both genders thought the most important factors when purchasing clothing were prices, a good fit, and attractive product (though the order in which these factors ranked differed by gender).
In general, people take time to research purchasing decisions that are important to them while doing online shopping. Since clothes shopping is generally more important to women than men, women are more likely to spend time deliberating over potential purchases. Ultimately, both genders want the same thing when purchasing a garment: something that fits well and looks good for an acceptable price.