Where women go on the Web Options

[cre8pc]

I like to read about where I go on the web because it always seems that women are going to places I don't go.

The Score: Women on the Web says the 50% of the 'Net users are women. Where do they go? Family oriented sites that pertain to family and kid care, shopping and MAPS?

Looking at the charts, there isn't a Technical category. Whenever I see things like I this, I wonder if I'm normal.

I was saved by noting that Overstock.com is quite popular. Had it not been for something Diane Vigil wrote in her blog about sheets on sale once, I would never have visited that site.

Now I'm hooked.

The lesson here for marketers? Tell women about your stuff. We'll sell it for ya.

<<Mod note: This thread was first started in the member-only After Hours section. However, it quickly grew both popular and educational. At the suggestion of a member (thanks for the great idea!), I'm moving it out front to the public access forums for all to enjoy. --- Kim Krause Berg.)

[bragadocchio]

Nice post from Holly Buchanan at her blog:

Why Women Shop Online

A snippet:

So – for the women who truly love the shopping experience – if they shop online instead of offline, there is usually a reason for it. There is something that the online experience offers that the offline does not. There is a reason why she is on the Internet and not in a store.

She lists a number of reasons. They're pretty good ones, too.

[eKstreme]

Interesting stuff! Especially that now is the time to start preparing for the Christmas rush: you know, build those sites, tweak the conversion paths, etc etc. We need to aim to be ready around September to buffer any delays to catch the Christmas season. These articles can't come at a better time IMHO.

Another thing that struck me is one bit of stats: for the iVillage.com: The Womens Network, 58% are female, so that means 42% are male. For something as targeted to women, that's quite a high proportion. iVillage needs to really understand what all these men are doing on their site (we can guess ), and target some content and ads to them!

[A.N.Onym]

To the mix of where women shop and why women shop, here is an article on how women (and men) shop

[sonjay]

Some of us shop online because we don't like shopping any more than men do.

The reasons women shop online (on Holly's blog) look to me like they would largely be the same reasons men shop online.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see any great insights in either of the first two articles. In the "Women on the web" article, what I see is that women comprise slightly over 50% of a lot of online shopping and at a lot of other types of sites. Given that women comprise slightly over 50% of the US population (and possibly the world population, for all I know), this is neither surprising nor insightful.

The "How women and men shop" was, to me, more useful and insightful -- it provides some data on actual differences in how women and men shop. To what extent that data is valid, I don't know, but we do know that different people shop differently, and that article gives some very useful pointers in tailoring the online shopping experience for the various shopping styles, be they women, men, or martians.

[dgeary9]

I have worked on optimizing a couple of sites that sell to a highly female audience, and one that sells to primarily men. Very different things have proven successful on those sites. The site selling primarily to guys got highest conversion rates from very linear pathways, clear calls to action, and um, "unsubtle" BUY NOW buttons. Images got clicks, but often acted as distractions.

For the sites with more female shoppers, a much less linear funnel with subtle calls to action and buying cues was most successful - as was "objective" information (in written article format - guys liked tables and specs). Women also liked navigation that made it easy to move "backwards" (at least in the sense of the linear buying funnels web analysts use to evaluate sites).

What I found most interesting though - optimizing a site for male shoppers got poorer reviews from female user testers. Optimizing a site for female shoppers tended to get better reviews for both male and female shoppers. This aligns with what some offline marketers have found true as well.

[hollybuchanan]

Interesting discussion. Some great points. I'm still not sure I've found a lot of great studies or information on how women and men shop differently online. I think there's some good data, but sometimes the interpretations are so broad and general that it only reinforces stereotypes. (like the article that didn't include technology as a category, even though a recent report on demographics for electronics and computer sites found that 49.97% of the visitors were men and 50.3% of the visitors were women)

I agree that for a lot of the same reasons women shop online, men shop online. The benefits of online shopping apply to everyone. In my research, I have found that women complain more about not having enough time, so I think that saving time may be a slightly larger motivator for women than for men.

But studies have proved that women and men make buying decisions differently. Women have more connections between the right and left hemisphere of their brain. they tend to have more questions they need answered when making buying decisions. AND they tend to have a less linear process. I always plan websites with pathways that are non-linear. I've found those sites do extremely well with both women and men. We map out what questions different personas have, but we do not necessarily know in what order they want those questions answered - so we plan for that and it's proven very successful. (though not easy - we had to design our own software in order to create these pathways because we couldn't find anything out there that easily let you plan non-linear pathways)

If anyone has any other information, experience, aritcles on how men and women shop differently online - I'd love to hear from you.

[send2paul]

Kim, I'll go one better, according to this report: More American Women Than Men Go Online - so there - it's official!

[cre8pc]

SCREAM!

And now. This.

Then there are the female blog readers. Seventy-seven percent of gossip blog readers are women, and over 49 percent are ages 22-30.

Source: Survey Shows the Blogosphere is Breaking Out

Hat Tip: Andy Beal

Conducted by the Blogads network, the study breaks out blog audiences into four categories: readers of political, gossip, mom and music blogs.

So.

Where do I fit?????????? I'm not a gossip blog reader. I'm older than 30. I blog on Internet stuff like SEO and usability.

I'm having one of those amazing moments, like when I once hiked up a very steep rocky hill, got to the top, and panting with my friends who were with me, gazed out over the cliff's edge to view the planet below. In that moment, I felt so tiny and wondered if anybody noticed I was really here at all.

Stats on women and the web have that same effect.

[AbleReach]

Where do I go on the web? I who happen to be female?
I go where I go.
I go... incognito.
Unless, is there a (rounded pink) tracking cookie somewhere on my hard drive, identifying my IP as feminine?



GOSSIP blog readers?
LOLOL!
Anyone wanna gossip about... er... some kind of benchmark?
BTW, I'm not talking about designer upholstery.


Blogosphere "breaking out?"
Of course! Ever notice how many teens have blog-ettes on myspace?

Oh sigh and groan.

[A.N.Onym]

That's what I always loved about the statistics.

They only see a tip or some part of the iceberg, not the whole picture. And, of course, most statistics ignore something important or place special emphasis on only one thing.

By the way, what were the blogs the study was based at? (sorry, didn't read the article)

Anyway, if they studied the blogs about automobiles, guns, technology stuff (put design, SEO and usability here), maybe the percentage would be different?

Kim, I believe you are included in the 5-15% of blogs that they have written off as miscellaneous
Your blog rocks, though, so they have lost something important (becides the accuracy) I am sure

[cre8pc]

oh thank you for the compliment! I like them as much as chocolate...

Speaking of things we like, how 'bout your avatar? Now that ROCKS!

[kensplace]

Ok ladies, dont take this the wrong way, I know it doesnt apply to most of the female population, but.....

Weirdly, and I know this is just a generalisation, but when men get together on the net, they often talk about either rubbish, sex or techy stuff. Buts thats it, just friendly chat.....

But when women get together, no matter what they talk about, there tends to be a lot of backstabbing that goes on (you really would not believe the amount I have seen related to the sites my other half does) - women seem a LOT more competitive online.

/me sits back and waits for the flames lol

[swainzy]

"Where Do Women Go on the Web"

Shopping, where else?

I do a lot of comparative shopping on the net. I want to know where to get the best prices.

I can also imagine that women might go looking for answers to health questions too.

PEW Internet & American Life Project
"How Women and Men Use the Internet: Women are catching up to men in most measures of online life. Men like the internet for the experiences it offers, while women like it for the human connections it promotes."
D

[Business Phones UK]

Hi all,

for those who do not fit with the article stats.. dont worry.. they are only seeking the majority..and lets face it alot of women out there are only after what they described. for techies who happen to be women, you will need to wait another generation before we get to show in the stats. there will be a day for us! but not yet!!

hehe

[AbleReach]

From here on out, you're all female unless I know differently.

Anyone who is male will eventually be added to stats as such. I'm sure that eventually our picture of who is doing what online will change to be more inclusive of them.

Stats "fixed."

<-- who was that masked womb-being?

[bearmugs]

So that's where all the women are. I've been looking in the wrong places.
Now if we consider that surveys only count the "people who reply to surveys" and I'm sure they are a very different breed. Who has time to fill out survey after survey. And you know the surveys are only accurate 9 times out of ten plus or minus 50 percent give or take when the sun is shining. When it's cloudy, the survey accuracy goes even weirder.
OH!
I shop online, because: no lines, no waiting, no driving (gas is expensive), no carrying things around (delivered right to your door).
And, when I shop online, I say I'm female, aged 20 to 35, earning over $150,000
I also describe my comfort level with computers as "total idiot".

Put that in your stats and choke it.

John EH!
P S
gotta shop
No time to spell check. Sorry for any unspellings.
OH!
And by the way, A.N. Onym is just sucking up to Kim with that Avatar.LOL

This post has been edited by bearmugs: Apr 27 2006, 01:08 PM

[eKstreme]

Statistics are like bikinis: they are very revealing, but hide the vitals.

Forgive me, but it had to be done in this thread

The point though is that stats are wonderful things. You say 60% or so do so and so? Great, what about the other 40%? Are they all doing one thing or are they more segmented. Besides, 40% of all women online is more people than the population of some countries. I would love to capture a fraction of that market.

[A.N.Onym]

And by the way, A.N. Onym is just sucking up to Kim with that Avatar.LOL

Not really.

As I mentioned to Kim earlier (via PM), I didn't have much choice of what to put as an avatar, so this would be my natural choice. And yes, I have a Cre8asiteForums window open as long as my Opera is open.

Glad you liked the avatar.

[dgeary9]

From here on out, you're all female unless I know differently.

ROFLMAO Ablereach... I got 3 PMs related to this thread, and every single one of them assumed I was a guy. Time for a picture, I guess!!!

As someone who has done a lot of marketing research, I can say for sure that what you find out depends in large part on what questions you asked. I don't think anyone has a great handle on even the "average" woman online as of yet, and they sure haven't begun to explore the nuances...