E-commerce study trashes gender stereotypes

Women are not the champion shoppers online, finds report

Andrew Charlesworth, vnunet.com 07 Sep 2006

Online retailing is reversing the sexual stereotype that women are champion shoppers, following the news that twice as many men as women shop online daily and are prepared to splurge on high-value items.

But men are less patient than women; only one in five men would give a sluggish website a second chance before turning to the competition.

These are the key findings of the UK Male/Female eCommerce study undertaken by web testing specialist SciVisum.

"Surprisingly, men are the biggest online spenders, but the worry for e-tailers is that they simply won't tolerate any blips," said Deri Jones, chief executive at SciVisum.

"With less than a fifth of men prepared to give even their favourite website a second chance, the message is very clear: online shoppers are showing zero tolerance to poor performance."

The survey found that men are easily the biggest spenders, with 15 per cent claiming to have splashed out £5,000 or more on a single purchase.

Men are also more likely to take risks with online commerce, choosing to gamble and spend on expensive items ranging from cars to houses. Men are also less influenced by brands.

Women shopped online less frequently than men and spent less money, with only one in four women willing to spend £100 or more on a single purchase online.

The majority of women spend their money on smaller items, such as books, CDs, groceries and clothes.

Although more women (75 per cent) than men (65 per cent) shop online, men shop most frequently, with twice as many men shopping daily as women.

The majority of women (34 per cent) shop online for special occasions. Women were found to have an average spend of only £77 per month compared with £101 for men.

Men also go for big-ticket items, with 38 per cent spending £1,000 on a single item, three quarters having spent more than £500 on a single item and 15 per cent confessing to splurging £5,000 or more on a single item, compared with only one in 20 women.

Nearly half of women surveyed (46 per cent) have never spent more than £100 on a single purchase.

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