Why the target group "women" is valuable
Women make up a high proportion of the distance selling trade: According to BVH and Exciting Commerce, online merchants could turn over €2.3 billion more annually by implementing more features aimed at satisfying the specific shopping needs of women (chart 1). Moreover, women are more loyal: 72.7 percent access the desired site directly in the browser without going through search engines and price comparators.
Webdesign
E-commerce market leader Amazon has already recognised the potential of women on the Internet: Depending on the gender of the logged in user, for example, the Kindle ebook is shown held in men's or women's hands. According to iBusiness.de, women feel from a factual-technical perspective, not usually spoken to by male website designers: They prefer rounded shapes, faces shown frontally and bright colour schemes. Women also respond well to harmony and attention to the overall composition of the website.
Communication, exchange, information
Women have greater communication and information needs while shopping and are in search of a holistic "experience". Men are much more focused and more on a "mission", which doesn't necessarily make them more efficient. The online shop should cater for this need of women, without which they are likely to leave the website.
Female users are often better networked than men.
Women have larger social networks and spend more time communicating via social media. Social contacts influence purchasing decisions. An increased involvement in the world of social media can be a good way to help to boost sales to women.
"Advice such as in the shop" = Cross Sales
Women like personalised offers, but no long registration procedures. To get better tips, they are quite willing to divulge information on size, colour, shoe size and their individual tastes. A good example of such a tool is www.mystylist.de.
Women also have different conversion paths than men: Instead of making the check out process as quick as possible, it may be useful when selling to women to indicate their purchases right "on the home page". They appreciate personal advice and can thus be susceptible to some cross-sales activity on the part of the shop.
Search behaviour, practices, and customer reviews
Women look at things differently than men. This is only rarely taken into account in the often very technical search architecture designed by the shop: With electronics shops you can sort the search result much more on technical properties than on design. But women are willing to pay more for a product that meets their individual needs.
Moreover, women are often interested in the long-term solution to a problem, while men focused primarily on the direct benefits of a product. This is evident in the following two test reports:
