We Don’t Shop Like You: Behavior Differences for Men vs. Women in Online Shopping

Posted on | February 8, 2008 |

Mars and Venus lives on in the e-shopping experience. Check-out these 5 insights to male and female online shopping behavior.

1. Men Seek and Destroy, Women Gather information and Save Time

True to their hunting heritage, men shop to kill. In studies guys talk of deals being sought and won, of possessing the advantage of competitive information, of feeling vulnerable shopping offline but having the upper hand online. Men also rank availability to ship immediately higher in the top five relevant features and benefits than did women. Women feel empowered shopping online. It’s not about beating the retailer at the game, but the time management and flexibility that is appealing. The woman can shop when it is convenient for her and can expand her reach beyond the personal limitations of geography and work schedules.

Women are also likely to shop by theme. For instance a woman may set out to buy a bathing suit for her vacation and end up buying a kayak.

2. Men feel powerful; Women feel self-actualized

Men enjoy the power that comes from product comparisons and the efficiency and novelty-­seeking ease of the Internet. Studies show that women associate online shopping with exploration and self-actualization. Women use the Internet principally as a life management tool and shopping is an item on the “to do” list.

3. Women “view all”; Men click and dig

Master multi-taskers women shop online as much for others as for themselves and need to see all their options as quickly as possible. Women love the View All option and liken online shopping to window shopping. Men are more likely to use comparison tools than women, and use shopping aggregators, retailer, and manufacturer sites–to exhaust the price range and features of their product. They are more likely than women to compare multiple products, learn more about product specifications, read product reviews, check product ratings and select a manufacturer based on reputation.

4. Women take time to think

Women are 1.5 times more likely to add items to the shopping cart for later viewing essentialy using the carts as bookmarks to come back to later.

5. Men care about the product; Women feel the context

There are differences between men and women`s aesthetic orientation and emotional engagement online. Men tend to recall specific product attributes and brands. Women mentioned their feelings about the overall web site they also focused on soft product attributes – such as color.

Further reading:

Gender Matters

Shopping cart abandonment

Online fashion expert, style and shopping expert, Michelle Madhok, is the CEO of White Cat Media LLC publisher of SheFinds.com and MomFinds.com, sites that help busy women shop online.

[tag] online shopping, gender, shopping cart abandonment, marketing to women, online marketing [/tag]

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