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Online shopping: The final frontier for men versus women?

With the online shopping business becoming a billion-dollar industry, a lot of research goes into the customer mindset. Such research has revealed that men and women differ vastly in their browsing patterns as well as shopping habits. So, the real life scenario of “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” seems to have got transferred online as well.

There are certain shopping experiences that men seem to prefer while women shoppers seem to be comfortable with other shopping patterns. To the same product, male customers and female customers will respond differently, going by the findings of the research. Men as is believed prefer to shop for technology while women prefer to shop for fashion, though there is much overlapping in these findings.

So, online shopping portals use this data to offer their goods in the best possible way, so as to make shopping an enjoyable experience for their customers as well as to maximize the sales.

The information on their browsing patterns and shopping habits, as well as knowing the stuff that lands most in wishlists and shopping carts, makes for a better shopping experience overall.

The data also does away with stereotyping customers on the basis of their gender, alone. Contrary to women being typecast as impulse shoppers, they are, in fact, revealed as being more careful shoppers who might be seen doing it in a hurry, but who have done a whole of research before logging-in to shop, in the first place.

Then, the men, usually seen as thrifty shoppers, who will take their time before spending their money, are, in fact, doing just the opposite. They come across as either clueless or easily persuaded by friends and family.

Yet, there are patterns which can be identified, at the risk of sounding sexist. Women shoppers, by and large, choose to remain loyal to the portal of their liking, they maintain a balance between luxury and essential shopping, are good at influencing their friends and family by their opinion on a shopping experience or commodity.

They are also, often, the trendsetters, in the sense that they wear the most trending clothes of the present or like to imitate celebrities and fashion trends. Likewise, they also get influenced by customer reviews by other shoppers, over making up their own mind. Finally, they just don’t shop for themselves but for many others, including family.

After having done their shopping, they also dwell on the pleasure of it much longer than the men. Therefore, you can be sure you will hear from them via any of the social media platforms on the latest acquisition.

Knowing this, online sellers devote much more effort on wooing the female section of their customers.

Men, in contrast, prefer to not only shop alone but keep the experience mostly to themselves. They also usually shop for themselves, not for a larger group.

They also don’t feel the need to do any prior research as they are quite satisfied that the online portal has done its homework and they can just pick and choose from the latest trends. Men are, however, very particular about the exact features – especially in auto and technology – that they are looking for. While women are brand-centric, men are not so much into a particular brand except when it comes to these two categories.

 

About the Author

Ritu

Ritu

Ritu working in India in the field of fashion and e-commerce, writes on various issues related to these subjects. To know more about latest fashion trends for men and women and how the e-commerce industry is shaping up, you can visit Myntra's blog & The Mars And Venus Of Online Shopping

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