THE BUYING CAPACITY AND GENDER

Suppose you’re a shopkeeper, and a man and woman enter your shop, who would you expect
to make more purchases? Most of you would say that it would be the woman.

Yes, we can say that might sound a little stereotypical, but believe it or not women now drive
the global economy. Retail can be considered the dominion of women, they shop to buy both,
essential and flexible goods, they shop to relax, to have fun, and to socialize.

Out of the many characteristics that can influence a customer’s decision-making behavior,
one of the chief factors is gender. When it comes to shopping, men and women have different
motives, perspectives, considerations, and rationales.

There is a more than a decade worth of scientific research on this theme, which shows that
there are various evident variances in how men and women tend to behave as shoppers. It’s
pretty clear, men and women think differently when it comes to shopping and will even
approach the act of shopping on online websites in different ways.

On an average, women, on the daily, spend more time than males making economic decisions
for their families, whether it’s consumer goods or services. Looking at this through a different
perspective, women are responsible for 70-80 per cent of all consumer purchasing.

In contrast, men are more reluctant when it comes to shopping; men are much more focused,
entering into shops only when they want a specific item, and wanting to get in and out
quickly. These characteristics might sound orthodox and cliched, but they carry on to online
shopping as well.

When online shopping had just started, it was male-oriented, since the products available
online were limited to computers, consumer electronics, and software. Slowly, as the variety
of goods available online expanded to home-décor items, clothing, food, women also took to
online shopping. The arrival of various social media tools, put together with better visuals
and video, made the online shopping experience more enticing. Women can now share their
online shopping experience and decision-making with their family and friends.

Women are also more likely to search for and find online sales and discounts, and promo
codes, while men prefer a quicker and more efficient process.

Women tend to be more thorough and they consider both, subjective (customer reviews) and
objective information, while men lean towards objective information (make, model, speed
etc.) rather than subjective information.

Mostly, women are hedonic shoppers, and to reach them and engage with them, you need to
build an emotive shopping experiences that they can resonate with. Whereas, when it comes
to men, they tend to follow a more utilitarian, and a logic-based approach, they need to know
why they should buy a product, and why it’s sensible for them to buy the product. Women
tend to stay loyal to good service, whereas men, keep loyal to brands.

According to a survey done by the AMP Agency in 2007, “A woman’s approach to shopping
is very much part of who she is; it is part of her DNA.” The way a woman shops when she is
18 years old will be similar to the way she is going to shop when she turns 43 years old. It
will always be a lifelong mindset. This insight was certainly unexpected, as most observers
expected women’s shopping habits to change with age.

However, women still remain unrepresented. They spend more time than males everyday
making purchasing decisions for their husbands, kids, and families. The question arises,
shouldn’t more businesses big and small, think of women while building their brands, and
creating new products and services?

Despite their remarkable strides in their social position and market power that they have
made in the last couple of years, they still remain undervalued in the marketplace and fairly
underestimated in their workplaces, women still remain unrepresented at the top level
positions in big companies.

Women have too many demands, they constantly reorganize their conflicting priorities, work,
family, and home. And, only a few companies have responded to their need and demand for
time-saving solutions to their problems or for products and services exclusively designed for
them.

Thus, there is a need for the economic upliftment of women, they need to be empowered,
there should be increased economic diversification and income equality. It is estimated that
gender gaps cost the economy some 15 per cent of GDP.

Shopping is the driver of a nation’s economy. There are many aspects that influence our
shopping behaviour, gender being of them. And, there’s a need to build an economy, where
suppliers and those making the demands are completely fair representations of the society
they cater to.