Online buying power of affluent males

Fashion

Last year menswear fashion grew substantially over womenswear, seeing a 40% growth in sales and growing at twice the rate. A new study by iProspect in partnership with ComScore has shown the affluent male in the digital age is spending more

than ever before. The study revealed there are 19 million affluent males online, of whom 98% buy products online, and 67% buy products online at multiple times per month.

The

study, titled: “The Affluent Male: What His Online Behavior Can Teach Luxury Brand Marketers,” identified 19 million affluent males on the Internet with a household income higher than $100,000, whom are connected through multiple devices and using them for both research and buying.

Luxury brands that appeal to the affluent digital male are Rolex, Louis Vuitton and Mercedes, and his search behaviour includes clothing, accessories, travel and sports.

In markets such as China, over 70% of sales of luxury goods are purchased by men, partly due to the gift-giving culture amongst businessmen and government officials. The Chinese market is also an upwardly mobile market and digitally driven, according to iProspect.

40% of respondents in the survey shop online at least twice a week and those who are shopping multiple times are spending in excess of $30,000 annually. Luxury menswear is on the leading edge of this growth trend, growing at a rate of about 14% per year.

Contrary to popular marketer assumptions, the affluent male is shopping for himself. 70% of the sample prefer to research and buy online, as opposed to researching online and purchasing in store.

Engagement with these devices is high across the board, with almost 100% of survey respondents report using their computers and smartphones at least daily and 85% reporting daily use of tablets.

When an affluent male has daily access to a tablet, he is 32% more likely to have made a purchase via the device. 55% use Facebook at least daily, 39% use Google+ at least daily and the top websites visited are Amazon (41%), Yahoo (37%), Google (29%), eBay (20%).

Image: Affluent male, tablet shopping