Young Europeans buy mostly clothes and accessories online

Clothes and accessories are by far the most popular product category to be bought online by 15- to 24 year olds in Europe. Also, footwear and tickets are popular items to shop online. The online purchase of clothes, accessories and footwear increases with age, level of education and income.

That’s just one of the many findings from an extensive report [pdf] by the intellectual property office of the European Union. It wanted to better understand the attitudes of 15-24 year olds with regards to intellectual property and thus asked about 25,000 15-24 year olds in all 28 member states several questions.

Part of the study was about the online purchase of physical goods and via GfK it found out that 73 percent of young females and 55 percent of young males bought clothes and accessories online, making this product category the most popular to be bought online. “These products are not only gender-driven, but the online purchase of clothes and accessories and footwear also increases with age, level of education and income”, the researchers say.

One could easy argue that it’s no surprise more women buy clothing online than men, but if we look at the third most popular product category online, tickets are also bought more often by women (42%) than by men (31%). “And similar to clothing and footwear, tickets are bought more often by older respondents, higher educated respondents and those with an income.”

While buying products online, safe payment methods, good quality and low prices are the most important aspects for European youngsters.

Buying counterfeit products online
According to the study, 12 percent of young people intentionally bought a counterfeit product online in the last twelve months. Young females, 18-21 year olds, students in higher education and the unemployed are less likely to buy counterfeit goods intentionally.

Clothes and accessories are not only the most popular category online, they are also the most likely products to be purchased as counterfeits amongst those who do so. Counterfeits in other categories are bought less often, the study finds.