Men are from mars, women from venus. We all know how true (or untrue) this adage is. As gender roles and behaviours blur in a changing social scenario, ever wondered how different are your customers and their choices basing on their gender? well if you haven’t, you should.
You know it all, you would argue. Men love gadgets, women love shoes. Men are impulsive, women take hours to pick and choose. I say, you have a think coming your way my friend. Guess who spends the most on shoes online? It is the Men. Surprised? Well you should be.
Given the personal space and anonymity that online shopping offers its users, men and women find it easier to express their desires and exercise choices which otherwise in the real world would have been frowned upon. With similar pay packages and surplus money, shopping online is popular both amongst men and women. What they buy too are varied and overlapping.
Sample this; showrooming or the practice of looking at things one wants to buy in a brick and mortar store but buying it online is more prevalent among men. According to a Neilsen Survey last year, 12 percent men shopping online confessed to have first checked out the product offline as opposed to just 9 percent women.
Conventional wisdom asserts women run after bargains while men see the value in prices. Wrong again. Both men and women alike look for prices before they shop online. Both the genders hunt for bargains equally well and sales attract them both. About 57 percent men and 71 percent women bought things on a sale last year as per Neilsen. Women though are likely to use coupons more than men.
So as a retailer selling your products on the big marketplaces , is there something that you can do to cater to these different customer behaviour patterns? Definitely yes. While all that you do to engage and entice your customer online works for both men and women, there can be slight alterations that you can bring in to your communication and modes of reaching out to ensure both genders are happy.
Women pay more attention to marketing emails. The fairer sex is more likely to first see their online purchase on an email in their inbox than men. So tailoring your emailers to suit their tastes could increase conversion rates. Women are more prone to checking these emails post 3 pm in the day and at night, so pushing them out at these times increases chances of they being read.
Men often find their products while they surf online, on social networks or news sties or game sites etc. Digital marketing initiatives targeting these sites for a product that is meant for the men can work wonders for you.
If it is your watch brand that pops up the moment men are looking for watches to buy online, chances are it is you who they would make the purchase from. If it is a Men’s range that you sell, paid advertising and search optimisation should be what you must concentrate on.
Contests entice the men, discount coupons are magic for the women. So when promoting products via social media, ensure your campaigns are tailored to your target gender. A discount campaign for say dupattas would work much better than a contest for the same. Same way, a set of gamified contest questions to find the “Prize” of a discount on a mens grooming range would get the adrenaline pumping in your customers.
Men love the gadgets while women crave for shoes and clothes? Nope, sorry. Women are as inclined to acquire the latest in technology and gizmos as the men are. Tailoring your communication to include both the genders works well for you if you are selling stuff like phones, phone cases, pen drives etc. Shoes are loved by men too, so are clothes and accessories. So having an option that is either unisex or caters to the men could be a consideration worth the effort.
Women love to shop on apps, while the men prefer a desktop. Call it the convenience factor or the fact that women hold their phones close to them always while the men tuck them off in their pant pockets, but Apps are preferred sale points for the women. Having said that, while more women would install your app on their phones, it is the men who would give you more business via the app. As confusing as the genders are isn’t it!
If you are a women centric product retailer, social media has to be in your plan for sales. Women are more likely to recommend purchases amongst their peers and leveraging that would do you a world of good.
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
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