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Shopping on Mars and Venus

I've come across a study on the differences between male and female shoppers, which was conducted by the Jay H. Baker Retail Initiative at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Verde Group, and WomenCertified. While the results are interesting, what caught my attention were the descriptions of the Verde Group and WomenCertified. The Verde Group is a "leading customer dissatisfaction consulting firm" and WomenCertified is a "consumer advocacy resource that empowers women to make better buying decisions."

It was the Verde Group's use of a negative--i.e. dissatisfaction--that caught my eye. It makes absolute sense to study customer dissatisfaction. I've just gotten used to "positive language"--every message that a business sends out spun into a glowing affirmation of what they do (or produce, or sell). And, I was surprised by the WomenCertified description because I didn't realize that I needed to be empowered to make better buying decisions. My days are full of buying decisions. Hmmm, I thought when I read the press release, maybe I'm not shopping as well as I should be. Well, it turns out that there's some truth in that feeling. The study revealed that as a woman over the age of 40, I'm more likely to experience problems shopping than a man in the same age category. However, men are "nearly 20% less likely to recommend a store where they experienced problems than women." A difference that is "even more pronounced among men under the age of 40."

The study highlighted some other "fundamental shopping differences between genders." Here are a selection of its findings:

* Customer service was a prevailing theme in the survey, particularly with women shoppers
* 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
* About 6% of all female shoppers are likely lost as a result of this problem
* Men's priorities are different: "difficulty in finding parking close to the store's entrance" was the number one problem for men (also at 29%)
* The problem that is most likely to lead to lost business for men is when a product is out of stock (5% of all male shoppers are likely lost as a result of this problem
* The problem that is most likely to lead to lost business for men is when a product is out of stock (5% of all male shoppers are likely lost as a result of this problem)
* Men and women are most satisfied with the sales associate's willingness to let them shop or browse at their own pace: at least 77% report being very satisfied with this attribute
* For men, a key loyalty builder is the sales associate's interest in helping them find the item they were looking for, followed by the sales associate's effort in getting them through check-out quickly
* For women, loyalty builders are more closely related to the sales associate's familiarity with the products and determining what products best suit them
* Women shoppers also value sales associates who make them feel important
* Almost half (47%) of women shoppers say they will not return to a store because, "store employees acted like shoppers were intruding on their time or their own conversations
* Only 22% of men agreed, and the difference is even more pronounced when comparing women over the age of 40 with men over the age of 40
* At least 50% of shoppers report having had a "wow" shopping experience at some point in their life that is one that is considered great
* More women than men report having had a "wow" shopping experience, but men and women alike are just over four times more likely to tell people about their positive "wow" experience than their negative shopping experience
* "Wow" experiences occur far less often than problem experiences, regardless of gender

It's interesting that the word price never comes up. The study is called "Men Buy, Women Shop." Click here to read more about it.

Posted by Lori Smith on December 10, 2007 2:12 PM |

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Lori Smith, , Editor-in-Chief
Lori Smith is the editor of Gifts and Tablewares, Canada's premiere gifts and tablewares magazine. Written for retailers of gifts, tablewares, housewares, stationery and home furnishing accessories, its objective is to help readers increase their sales and run their businesses more profitably by providing information on new products, merchandising, small business management, customer service, consumer behavior and industry news. The magazine is published six times a year by BIG Magazines, LP, a leading Canadian information company.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on December 10, 2007 2:12 PM.

The previous post in this blog was The Price of Mis(sed)perceptions.

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