The answer for most shoppers is simple: Go to the store. A January 2007 Accenture survey found that two-thirds of online consumers prefer to buy clothing in stores rather than online.



"Apparel is a big cross-channel shopping category," said eMarketer senior analyst Jeffrey Grau. "Traditional retailers who understand the consumer purchase process will develop strategies for driving online shoppers to their stores."



Despite a preference for buying apparel in stores, many online consumers like to research their prospective purchases on the Internet.

In fact, the apparel category is second only to electronics in the percentage of adult online consumers who practice this form of cross-channel behavior, according to a 2006 holiday season survey conducted by BIGresearch on behalf of the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association.

All together, 32% of online consumers indicated they had cross-channel-shopped apparel versus 51% of online electronics shoppers. Shopping across channels for apparel was most prevalent among female online consumers (36%).



Thus far, visiting apparel and accessories sites is a pursuit for young people.

Just under one-half of visitors to clothing sites in June 2007 were under 35 years old, according to Hitwise data provided to eMarketer. Only 30% of apparel site visitors were over 44. By contrast, 39% of visitors to shopping and classified sites were younger than 35.

As for income, 51% of online apparel and accessories shoppers had annual household earnings of $60,000 or more, and 24% had even higher income of $100,000 or more. By comparison, 50% of visitors to shopping and classified sites had an annual household income of at least $60,000.