The speed of fashion retail these days is boosting apparel sales, especially among women’s clothing purchased online. Of the more than 7,000 new apparel products that appear online every day, nearly half are aimed at women, while only 1,750 are geared toward men, with the rest children’s, babies’ and footwear. More than half of all online women’s apparel purchases are items that have just hit the market in the previous three months, compared with 38.8 per cent of spending on the newest men’s items.

There are other gender-based shopping differences. Women tend to shop seasonally while men buy shirts and underwear all year long. Women, meanwhile, look for dresses in the spring and sweaters in the fall.

Women’s apparel sees much more turnover in response to a quicker fashion cycle than other categories of clothing. Moreover, women’s clothes purchased online span a wide range of items of clothing than men’s or children’s apparel and women’s clothes are sold in the same ratio at the high and low end.

Online apparel consumers at all levels are keen on finding deals. There has been a 4.3 per cent year-over-year price deflation in online apparel sales compared to relatively flat apparel inflation in stores.