12% of UK consumers buy clothes and shoes online

We’ve recently been doing a considerable amount of brand and advertising acquisition work with online retailers and insurers. Looking through a few market studies, I discovered that “men are twice more likely to shop online than women” according to retailer CB Richard Ellis.

Overall, 40% of consumers buy goods or services online. Men report that they do so once every two and a half weeks on average, whereas women make a purchase once a month.

The survey, which polled 10,000 people from different countries, found out that 12% of UK consumers buy clothes and shoes online and this ranks them in the top three. Germany and Sweden are the only countries that beat the UK, with 16% and 14%, respectively.

Despite the growth of e-commerce, many people are still preoccupied with security and this makes consumers wary, the report points out. This statement is backed by a previous research, which disclosed that for one-third of consumers the risk of fraud while shopping online is too high. Apparently, the development of better security options is essential for the further growth of the sector.

Working with our clients and our in-house planning teams at TheAgency, we’ve spent considerable time evaluating how consumers interact with retail brands and where their levels of expectation lie.

Our conclusions are that online and in-store shopping should be viewed as complementary because consumers across Europe prefer to gather as much information about a product as possible and they would do so regardless of the channel through which the information is accessed. Having this in mind, brands should improve online platforms in order to provide consumers with the best options for traditional and high-tech shopping. Equally, mapping the online and offline consumer journey, and making provisions for where a consumers brand experience may begin and end will become increasingly important in the future.