Klarna, the AI-powered global payments network and shopping assistant, has announced that UK sales of women’s football shirts through the platform are up 17% on a year earlier, growing twice as fast as men’s shirt sales which are up just 8% from a year earlier.
Yet demand for female sports merchandise still outstrips supply, with 8 out of 10 UK consumers saying they would buy more if there were more options available, according to a Klarna-sponsored survey of 1,000 UK consumers by the Sports Innovation Lab.
To raise awareness, Klarna has worked together with global football media brand COPA90 to launch new merchandise including a football shirt and t-shirt. Designed by Sophie Hird, who was previously enlisted by Mitre to design a cap that commemorated the forgotten Women’s World Cup team of 1971, the merchandise features the phrase “Rep Her” and symbolises the growing influence of women’s sports and celebrates fans’ passion (watch ‘the making of’ video here). The kit is available to buy through the world’s first dedicated women’s football retail site, FOUDYS. Klarna has also launched an official merchandise hub on Pricerunner.com/Klarna, to help fans find women’s football merchandise.
“I launched FOUDYS to tackle the shortage of merchandise for fans of women’s football, and the response has been astonishing,” says Helen Hardy, Founder and CEO of FOUDYS. “While our goal was to double our growth annually, we’ve actually tripled it which clearly shows the immense demand for women’s football merchandise. I’m thrilled to be part of this initiative with Klarna, recognizing the value of women’s sports and helping to ensure that fans are no longer underserved.”
“There is a wide-open goal for any sportswear brand who caters to the women’s sports boom, but surprisingly, not enough are stepping up just yet.. So we launched this research to raise awareness of the Merch Gap and goad the big brands into serving female sports fans.” says Megan Gokey, Klarna’s Head of B2C Marketing & Brand Partnerships. “We are energised by the recent attention surrounding women’s sports and are thrilled to kick off this initiative, ultimately helping to make merchandise more accessible to millions of fans and create a space for women’s sports fans to shop smarter and ‘fan’ harder.”
The growth is driven by increased participation in women’s sports across the board. 69% of respondents have attended or watched a womens sports event on TV or digital platforms in the past 12 months*. The most popular women’s sports include the FA Women’s Super League (59%), UEFA Women’s Champions League (63%), Women’s Tennis Association (30%) Women’s National Basketball (26%) and Women’s Cricket Superleague (22%).
