Last week, I wrote about Male Versus Female Shopping Styles and came away with the conclusion that both genders want deals.  As I was thinking about the research that indicated that women are gatherers and like to browse, I wondered what effect, if any, such information would have regarding online selling.  I did some more research and discovered some articles that highlight the following:

• A majority of women actively read e-mail newsletters.
• While women use Facebook and Twitter, and like receiving offers from merchants, those channels do not influence their buying decisions as much as product reviews or friends.
• Women like to talk about products, so contests and special offers should be used and promoted on Facebook, Twitter, and other channels.
• Women pay more attention to the terms of a sale, as well as the return and shipping policies.

While it is interesting to learn about a particular gender’s shopping behavior, it is also useful to know that adding features that are of more interest to one gender does not “turn off” or negate the shopping behavior of the other.  Of course, this assumes that you are following best practices, like allowing (male?) shoppers to opt out of your newsletter campaigns.  While details such as adding a clear link to your return policies may be more important to women, it can still be useful to a significant number of men and is certainly not an impediment to them purchasing.

The bottom line is to use all of the features and channels at your disposal.  Do not underestimate the value of features like e-mail campaigns or, as trivial as it might seem, clearly explaining shipping policies.

As for web site aesthetics (color schemes, font selections and sizes, etc.), that is a whole other matter with, I’m sure, lots of different opinions regarding men, women, and age.  Sounds like a good thing to research for a future blog!

For more on female shopping styles see:

• Women Enjoy Shared Online Shopping Experience
• Women & Our Online Behavior and Social Media Habits
• Gender Differences in Online Shopping

Last week my family and I went on vacation.  Like most vacationers, we wanted to pick up some gifts for our friends and relatives.  The first night was spent walking downtown, doing some window shopping, and checking out the sights.  I knew I needed to get a gift for my brother (his birthday is coming up), so I kept my eyes open, saw what I wanted to get for him, saw that it was 20% off, and bang!  I’ve purchased the gift and don’t need to worry about it for the rest of my vacation!

My daughter and wife however, do not purchase any gifts the first day.  In fact, my wife waits until the last hour of our last day to purchase some gifts!  My daughter, searching for some inexpensive gifts, was looking at a display that had 5 items for $20.  I asked why she didn’t just purchase them right now?  She said that, somewhere in the 100 or so booths and shops we had looked at, she saw similar items priced at 7 for $20.  I suggested that she could see if the shop owner would negotiate, but she did not want to do that. Instead, she wanted to continue to look!

Apparently, my family was falling into the gender roles described in ‘Men Buy, Women Shop’: The Sexes Have Different Priorities When Walking Down the Aisles. The article quotes that “Women are gatherers. Men are hunters. Women walk into a store and scan. Men look for a specific aisle.”  Yup, that’s me when I shop!

I should be praising my wife and daughter for scanning to determine the best deal before purchasing (and I do admire it), but for me, I sometimes want to just get the buying over with so I can get on with other things.  If the price looks fair and it is on sale, then for a $35 item, I’m sold.  There have been times that I’ve waited until the last minute to purchase a gift.  But when I do wait until the last minute, it is not because I’ve been window shopping for days; it’s because I’ve usually forgotten about it and only have time to make the purchase at the last minute!

Despite our different methods, the one common element in all of our vacation shopping was that we were looking for a deal.  In my case, 20% off was enough to sell me.  So, the one important take away that I see is for merchants to always offer a sale price, discount, or coupon on at least some of their products.  It is relatively easy to comparison shop on the web.  If your products are displayed at a discount price, that may be enough to clinch the sale right then.  If it doesn’t close the deal right away, you can be sure that all those “gatherers” that are scanning your site will remember it and be back!