Purchasing of Clothes tops Purchasing of Computers

An interesting article from The New York Times which highlights the comfort that consumers are now feeling with purchasing clothing online. Clothing was always seen to be one of the high street goods which would never really work online, but this has been disproven.

The sales of apparel in the US topped out at $18.3bn last year, which is $1.1bn more than the sale of computers (traditionally a high selling product online). There are many reasons why this could be the case, some highlighted in the article, but here are my reasons for buying clothes online:

1) They always have your size. Often going into shops is a constant hassle or pursuit for the right size. Being the average male size, I often find that the only sizes left are the XXL and the XXS, rather than the traditional M that I wear.

2) No queuing. Now us Brits are famous for our queues, we love them. I believe we even actually created queuing. However, having to endlessly queue in shops on a saturday afternoon is something I could do without. The simple e-commerce model of select, size, and checkout means I can be in and out of a clothes shop within a matter of minutes.

3) Purchasing Methods. Many e-tailers stores now allow you to purchase through Paypal which means that the younger audience can now purchase online, without the need for going in-store with cash in hand. But in addition e-tailers are constantly improving their credit card security.

Matt Bamford-Bowes