Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Wharton School of UPenn and Verde Group have jointly released their research results on the shopping behavior differences between genders. If you have paid attention to Forrester’s or Jupiter’s reports on the same topic none of the findings will surprise you. However it is still nice to see them being further confirmed. Although the research is focused on offline retailing, many of these insights can be translated to the online store as well. Some highlights:
 

• Women are more likely to experience problems than men (53% vs. 48%), especially women over the age of 40 (when compared to men in the same age category)
• Men are nearly 20% less likely to recommend a store where they experienced problems than women. This difference is even more pronounced among men under the age of 40.
• Among the top problems that female shoppers experience, “lack of help when needed” is the number one problem (29%) and is more likely to lead to lost business
• The problem that is most likely to lead to lost business for men is when a product is out of stock
• Men, who have often been accused of being merely replacement shoppers, tend to be more utilitarian when they hit the malls and shopping centers. It's a mission. Get in. Get what's needed. Get out. Quickly.
• Women, on the other hand, generally like to look around, talk to sales associates and experience the shopping. They walk around, smell perfume, touch clothes, dab on cosmetics. They want attention and they want direction.

 
Fang-Yu Lin