Men shop differently than women, sort of
It’s virtually impossible to get through the holiday season without shopping. Whether it’s a Donald Trump Pottery Planter for the office gift exchange or a nice bottle of wine for the inlaws, you will be in a physical or online store.
A friend of mine used to joke about “mall gas,” which, he claimed, was pumped into the air at shopping centres. He said it made females excited and eager to shop while putting males to sleep. Supposedly this explains why you often see guys slumped on the benches at megamalls.
Do men and women really approach shopping differently? A 2014 retail industry study called The Myth of the Mansumer shattered some treasured beliefs like “men are more time-efficient shoppers” and “men make logical rather than emotional decisions.” Not so, says this study of more than 1,700 U.S. consumers. The researchers add that “the rise of online shopping and omnichannel commerce has levelled the playing field, as technology brought the mansumer era to a close in just a few short years.”
They did find some genderbased differences. Women were twice as likely as men to be influenced by social media in their buying choices. Guys were more likely to spend more than 30 minutes researching a product before purchasing it. Online shopping turned out to be a hit for everyone, with both genders saying they were doing significantly more of that than the year before.
Males set a higher standard for store employees, with 66.7 per cent of the men saying they expected sales associates to be able to assist them with both online and in-store requests. Only 50.5 per cent of women expected that level of service.
A fascinating new study by a group of business professors probes the biology of the male shopping psyche. Researchers, including Amos Nadler of the Ivey Business School and Gideon Nave of the Wharton School, divided 243 male volunteers into two cohorts. One group got a topical testosterone gel (T), the other received a placebo. They were then shown various apparel choices with varying social ranks, (e.g., Calvin Klein, high vs. Levi’s, low.)
“The results confirmed our hypothesis,” they write. “We found that participants who received T showed greater preference for brands that were associated with higher social rank and that T increased positive attitudes toward goods that were positioned as status-enhancing but not those positioned as power-enhancing or high in quality.”
The elevated testosterone levels in this experiment were due to the administration of the gel, but there are real-life situations that can cause our levels of that hormone to surge. Nadler and colleagues write that this happens “during and following sporting events, in the presence of attractive mates, and following meaningful life events such as graduation and divorce.” They go on to suggest that, in those situations, “male consumers might be more likely to engage in positional consumption and might find status-related brand communications more appealing.”
You can bet that some genius data scientist is busily trying to apply this insight to get guys to open their YSL or Versace wallets as they watch sports on TV or go through a divorce.
Another study probed the psychological factors that drive us to shop. Emine Koca and Fatma Koc, of Gazi University, quizzed 382 consumers — 86 women and 196 men — living in Ankara, about what sent them shopping for clothes.
They found that more women than men say they purchase clothing “to bolster their spirits” and that men more than women purchase clothing “in order to conform to fashion.” This jibes with my experience when I spoke to a mostly male breakfast club. They started with a “tip round,” and the predictions about trends in lapel sizes and tie widths from a men’s clothier were even more popular than hot stock tips.
The millennial generation will clearly shape the future of shopping, and there are important gender differences there. A study of 118 Croatian students in that age group by Radojka Kraljevic showed that millennial “women are more sensitive to price than men (males 37.25 per cent; females 62.75 per cent)” and found a significant difference in the ownership of loyalty cards. In this study, 82 per cent of female university students had one, compared to 31 per cent of the males interviewed. This might vary in different cultures, but the authors suggest retailers promote their cards more aggressively to males.
Some experts think that stores may become like museums — a place to look and touch merchandise that you end up ordering online.
One big company has already gone down this path with a technology discovery storefront in Manhattan’s trendy meat packing district.
At Samsung 837 you can try out a virtual-reality surfboard, talk to experts, and see how your technology connects with Samsung ’s gear. But you can’t buy anything.
And yes, the last time I visited Samsung ’s cool New York venue — it was full of geeky guys.