Women embracing technology to shop

British women are leading the way when it comes to adopting new technology to do their shopping, according to the latest research from Worldpay.

While men are quite content with doing their shopping on their desktops, women are embracing their smartphones and tablets to shop online. The Worldpay data reveals that 19 percent of women have used a tablet to buy something online, compared to just 13 percent of men.

The figures are similar when it comes to shopping via a smartphone, with 11 percent of women embracing the technology, compared to 8 percent of men. Male shoppers it seems prefer to use a desktop or laptop with more than three-quarters of men, 78 percent, shopping this way online, compared to 70 percent of females.

Maria Prados, VP Global Retail at Worldpay said: “Despite the stereotype that men are faster to adopt new technologies, our findings reveal that it is women who are responsible for driving the early success of the mobile eCommerce boom. Fashion retailers, in particular, have been quick to capitalise on female mobile shoppers, with over 60 percent of mobile traffic coming from the fashion industry alone.

“There are many reasons that mobile commerce suits the needs of the female shopper. In general, women tend to spend more time browsing for clothes than men and are quicker to seek out trends on social media and jump on them. However, there are early signs that men are starting to emulate that behaviour and some savvy retailers are taking advantage of this such as Net-a-Porter, which recently launched a men only site.”