Men who can’t be bothered to go out shopping are helping to drive rapid growth in online retailing, according to a survey by the British Council of Shopping Centres.
FT.com reports that men have a ‘hunter’ approach to shopping – they know what they want and want to get it as quickly and painlessly as possible. Online shopping is the perfect way for them to do this.
According to the survey, people could save 30 hours this Christmas by shopping for presents online. While many British adults predict they will spend 40 hours doing their Christmas shopping in stores, the same tasks could be completed online in ten hours.
The survey revealed that men intend to do more and more of their shopping online in the future, as they find it far less stressful than a trip to their local high street.
According to the BCSC report, women don’t share this view:
“Women were at the opposite spectrum compared with men when it came to their future intentions. They were certainly not planning to do more shopping online, nor did they think it was more convenient to shop online.”
The IMRG predicts a record online Christmas this year, with Britons expected to spend £7 billion. Overall UK online spending is predicted to reach £39 billion by 2010. It seems that a large portion of this growth could be due to men.
Further Reading
Online Retail User Experience Benchmarks 2006
Online Retail User Experience Benchmarks 2004
Learn more...
Econsultancy's Online Customer Service Buyer's Guide includes profiles of suppliers offering online survey tools.
Graham Charlton is Senior Reporter at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter or connect via Linkedin.
Posted 08 November 2006 10:57am by Graham Charlton with 5 comments
Tags: Social Shopping, Shopping
Topics: Ecommerce, Online Surveys & Research, Web Design
Sectors: Consumer Goods, Retail
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Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
2:18PM on 19th September 2008
I agree! Men are more likely to shop online that trawl the high street looking for bargains. I think the credit crunch has hightened this and made shopping online even more desirable to men.
Jane Peters
10:46AM on 5th January 2009
Excellent post..! The world is growing. Men are also getting busy. They prefer to shop online to save money and time both.
5:14AM on 6th January 2009
Time is one of the most valuable commodities on Earth that’s why shoppers and consumers prefer online shopping mainly because it is not time consuming and aside from that you can also save money and your energy. Though online powerhouse Amazon.com pulled in extra cash this year, overall retail sales on electronics, women's clothing and jewelry plummeted more than 20 percent from last holiday season. Looks like people are still willing to pay for convenience in a shrinking economy. Not only does Amazon.com save consumers from having to drive to the store and fight the crowds, it sells everything! So it makes sense that it’s doing so well. You can find gifts for everyone from your infant nephew to your great-grandma at that site. Amazon seems to be the only retailer that saw gains this year, though. Overall internet spending fell 1 percent in the United States. Regular retail sales on luxury items, such as jewelry, fell a whopping 35 percent. If that’s not a sign of the times, I don’t know what is. Read this article to learn more about how retailers fared this holiday season and to check out your options if you’re in need of <a title="READ Retail Sales Fall as Amazon.com Pulls in Extra Cash" rev="vote-for" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/12/26/retail-sales-fall-as-amazoncom-pulls-in-extra-cash/">extra cash</a>.
11:11PM on 27th January 2009
Men don't like to shop very much - I hope nobody got paid very much to do that study. Online shopping also offers discounts that will still put a person ahead after shipping, and you don't even have to leave the comfort of your own home. You could take care of all your shopping for the Holidays in your sweats - it sure beats having to go to the nearest shopping center, however far away that is, and online features no traffic, no other people, no screaming kids to deal with except your own. Online retail actually slightly grew over the last fiscal quarter as opposed to traditional retail outlets.
10:32AM on 31st July 2009
most of male friends buy their needs online, perfume, computer something like that!
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