Male shoppers embrace online shopping as haven from mall

Fashion is the fastest-growing segment of online commerce, and it’s being propelled by an atypical source: men. Men who have had to live with department stores designed primarily for women are flocking to websites such as Bonobos and Thrillist that push convenience and a fast shopping experience. And these sites are capturing a growing part of the $41 billion fashion e-commerce market by providing services like recommending items based on personality or shipping trunks of clothes to a guy’s home so he can pick. Thrillist, for example, gives men tips for activities or products and then sells them. Its founder, Ben Lerer, tells Bloomberg: “Men don’t hate fashion; they just hate shopping the way it’s designed for women.” And he points to a generational difference among male shoppers: “The young generation of guys love to shop; they love to talk about the brands they like, and they really care about how they look.” While women’s share of the online clothing market is still more than double men’s, the men’s market is growing faster, at a 13% annual rate compared with 10% for women, according to NPD Group, a consumer tracking service. And that growth gap is seen by many as about to get wider. “It’s an area of e-commerce that companies are only just now starting to really figure out,” says Joshua Goldman of Norwest Venture Partners, who specializes in retail deals. Read the full story here.