Study: Online users want personal shopping

The market research institute GfK examined the personal shopping market on behalf of Outfittery. A total of 1605 online users in Germany were surveyed as part of the representative study. The study shows that over 80 percent of personal shopping users would like to use this service again - consumers value this service. Even those who do not yet use personal shopping are very interested in it: one in three online users would like to use such a service in the future. The study also provides information on current usage among men and women: A good ten percent of men have already used a personal shopping service. The figure for women is just under six percent. As a result, two thirds more men than women use personal shopping. Overall, around six percent of the online population has used curated shopping to date. The level of awareness of market participants and shopping behavior were also surveyed.
Sankt Gallen, October 5, 2015: In addition to the awareness and use of personal shopping services, GfK also examined the market potential and the different consumer behavior of men and women.

Here are the results of the study:

The market potential of personal shopping:

The market potential is enormous: around a third of the men and women surveyed who have not yet tried personal shopping state that they find this new type of online shopping interesting and want to use it in the future. 80 percent of existing users also said they would use this service again. Those who are not interested in personal shopping give the following reasons: Men are dominated by a general lack of interest in fashion (26%); women primarily prefer to do their own shopping (31%).

Personal shopping is currently more widespread among men:

Curated shopping or "personal shopping" is based on the idea of providing customers with personal advice from professional style experts and making their fashion shopping easier or taking it off their hands completely. An idea that goes down well with men, as the usage figures (see above) show. Why this is the case explains the different attitudes of women and men when it comes to shopping. The study shows that 31% of men find buying clothes or choosing outfits stressful. 22 percent find it time-consuming to sift through the many different offers. Women seem to be less bothered by this. 27 percent say they enjoy shopping extensively.

Awareness and market participants:

By far the best-known personal shopping service is also the pioneer in curated shopping: 32% of men know Outfittery. And even among women, the Berlin start-up is the best known, although it has only offered its service to men so far. 16 percent of women know Outfittery. Other market players only achieve single-digit awareness levels among women. The picture is similar among male online users. Only one provider here achieves just under half as high an awareness score (15 percent) as Outfittery (32 percent). In the supported survey, the awareness of all German companies active on the market was surveyed.

Differences in purchasing behavior between men and women:

Women are "pleasure shoppers": 27% said they enjoy shopping extensively and 24% even see shopping as a leisure activity. Only just under half of men share this attitude: only 13% said they enjoy shopping extensively and just over 11% see it as a leisure activity.