Women 'dominate online retail usage'

11:58 19th February 2010

Companies in Lancashire could benefit from targeting women with their online retail services, a new study has suggested.

Research by Deutsche Card Services found that 61.35 per cent of all transactions in European online retail websites were carried out by women, which highlights the growing impact that females are having on the sector.

In comparison, a report published in 2007 revealed that men were responsible for 56 per cent of sales.

The new study also showed that online retail services tend to be particularly popular with those living outside of large metropolitan areas.

Detlef Henke, chairman of the management board of Deutsche Card Services, said female dominance in the online retail sector was surprising as men are generally more active in e-commerce overall.

He added: "While women are obviously more cautious about services or travel-related items on the internet, they are more active in online retailing.

"This is an important result of our report for merchants who do business in the respective sectors."

Recent figures published by the British Retail Consortium highlighted that online sales in the UK were up 14.6 per cent in January from 12 months earlier.

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