By Martin Vedris

SYDNEY: The latest statistics on online purchasing behaviour produced by HitWise for Australia’s largest online retail store, DealsDirect.com.au, have revealed that an increasing number of men are shopping on the website and most of these are over 55 years of age.

According to Hit Wise, an online competitive intelligence service, men are shying away from retail stores and turning to the internet to purchase their goods.

Over a 12 week period ending August 2007, 60.63 per cent of shoppers on the site were men who used DealsDirect.com.au to purchase a range of goods from homewares, to CDs, tools, perfume and toys. This compares with 39.37 per cent of female shoppers using the site.

Interestingly, the largest male demographic using the site was men over 55 years who made up 34.27 per cent of male buyers. This age group was followed by 24.32 per cent of male buyers being aged 45 to 54, while 23.49 per cent were men aged 35 to 44, 13.69 per cent were men aged 25 to 34 and 4.22 per cent were younger men aged 18 to 24 years.

Geographically, more people in the eastern states shopped on the web, with NSW leading the way with 36 per cent of the buying demographic, followed by Queensland (22 per cent), Victoria (19 per cent), then WA (9 per cent), SA (7 per cent), Tasmania (4 per cent) and NT (1 per cent).

HitWise also reported that over a four week period ending August 2007, DealsDirect.com.au outranked all other internet retailers in the Shopping and Classfieds Department Store Category, with a 25.87 per cent market share.

DealsDirect.com.au co-founder, Paul Greenberg said his online retail store has been tracking the rise of online shoppers for some time because its growing appeal to all people, but particularly men, is that it is hassle-free and extremely price competitive.

“They have discovered the convenience of being able to shop when it suits them, at any time of the day or night. They are not having to worry about parking, queues, waiting around outside changing rooms, they don’t have to lug shopping parcels to and from the car and they know they are getting bargain prices on the same range of goods that they would find in any retail store,” Greenberg said.