2023 Author: Katelyn Chandter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 13:08
How do men buy and how do women buy? What makes you make a purchase? What kind of purchases do men and women make in the store? Men and women are different in almost everything, so why shouldn't they shop differently? It is customary to think of men that they do not particularly like to go shopping and do it very rarely. As a result of this conventional wisdom, the entire trading system, from packaging design, product advertising to store interior design, is aimed primarily at female customers.
Women really enjoy shopping more: go shopping quietly, look at products, compare quality and prices, talk to sellers, ask them questions, try on selected items and, finally, pay for purchases. Most of the purchases are made by women, and they usually do it with pleasure.
In one study of baby products, women we interviewed insisted they didn't even have to look at the price tags. (Later we found out that in most cases they were wrong).
Compared to women, men in stores are like stray bullets. Men move down the aisle faster than women and spend less time looking at items. In many cases, it is difficult to draw their attention to something that they did not intend to buy. They usually do not like to ask where the department with the product they need is located, and in general they do not like to ask the sellers questions.
You can see a man who decisively walks to the desired section, takes some thing and almost immediately goes to pay for it, without experiencing any visible joy about the purchase. And you need to literally make way for him. If a man takes some thing to the fitting room, then the only reason he will not buy it later is that it did not fit him in size. If women try on the chosen things, even if they sit perfectly on them, this does not mean that the purchase will be made. A woman can refuse her for some other reason. In one study, we got the following results: 65% of those men who visited the fitting room bought the selected item, compared with 25% of female customers.
Here's another statistical comparison: 86% womenwhen they go shopping, they look at the price tags. Only men do it 72% … For men, indifference to price is a kind of measure of their masculinity. As a result, men are much quicker to make expensive purchases than women. They are also much more susceptible to suggestion than women - they are so impatient to get out of the store as soon as possible that they are ready for anything.
Anyway, these days men began to shop much more … This trend will continue to be observed. As they stay single longer and longer, they have to learn to buy things their fathers never cared about. Considering also the fact that men marry women who work hard and hard, they will be forced to shoulder an increasing proportion of their purchases. Manufacturers, merchants and designers who pay due attention to male buyers and strive to take their interests into account in the process of buying and selling will have great success in this century.
Photo: saturnism
The traditional arena for studying male shopper behavior has always been supermarkets. It is here, where a vast array of groceries can be easily reached from the shelf, that you can witness the carefree swagger and chronic lack of discipline that characterize the behavior of males in stores. In one supermarket study, we calculated how many shoppers came to the store armed with grocery lists. Almost all women had them. And among men, lists were less than a quarter. Any wife who cares about the family budget will think twice before letting her husband go to the supermarket alone. And if a man is armed with a shopping trolley, his masculine qualities in the field of shopping will be even more pronounced.
In supermarkets, like in no other stores, a lot of purchases are made on impulse. And this is true for both men and women. Studies have shown that from 60 to 70%all supermarket purchases were not planned. But men are especially accommodating in response to requests from children for treats, there are also more of them than women, tempted by bright packaging.
In some categories, men simply put women in the belt. In a study carried out for one store, we found that 17% of the men surveyed visited the store several times a week. Almost a quarter of all respondents said that when they left their homes, they did not intend to enter the store, but got there out of pure curiosity. The fact that the research was conducted in a computer store may clarify the situation in many ways.
Obviously, most of these store visits were for information gathering purposes. On the videotape, we observed men who carefully read the text on packages with computer programs, as well as any other informational literature or advertising signs. In this store, men bought software, but they also got knowledge there. This fact underlines another characteristic of men's shopping: as much as men do not like asking for directions, so much they like to receive information at first hand, preferably from written sources, educational videos or from a computer screen.
A few years ago, we did research for a cell phone provider who opened their first retail store. We saw that men and women used the store in completely different ways. Women invariably walked to the counter and asked sales assistants questions about different phone models and different connection contracts. The men, in turn, went straight to the display cases with telephones and information stands. They then took the brochures and forms to fill out and left the store without a word to the salespeople. Returning to the store a second time, they were ready to sign a contract. And women decided to conclude a deal on average only on the third visit to the store, and then after long consultations with the sellers.
Photo: Photocapy
Our research has proven time and time again that when a woman goes shopping with a man, she spends less time in the store than if she went there alone, with another woman, or even with children. Here is a summary of one study from a chain of hardware stores on the amount of time it takes to shop: a woman walking to the store with a friend - 18 minutes 15 seconds;
a woman with children - 7 minutes 19 seconds;
a woman shopping alone - 5 minutes 2 seconds;
a woman who goes to a store with a man - 4 minutes 41 seconds.
The picture seems pretty clear: when women go shopping together, they love to chat, consult, suggest something to each other, consult, and it takes them more time. With children, it takes them time to monitor their behavior and distract their attention. When a woman is alone, she tries not to waste time. And with him…. Every minute he makes it clear that he is tired of everything and that at any moment he can get into the car and turn on the radio or just go out into the street.
If he could be captivated or occupied with something, women would feel much freer and more pleasant. And they would have spent more time and money. There are two main strategies for distracting the attention of men in establishments where serious shopping is involved.
The first is passive containment, which does not mean handcuffing at all. Stores that sell mainly goods for women must come up with ways to entertain men. If I were the owner of a fashionable women's store, I would arrange a place in it where women could donate their men, like a coat to a wardrobe. There is one very traditional place where men like to while away the time. These are hairdressing salons. Only maybe instead of old rickety chairs and old rooms Playboyit would be worthwhile to put comfortable chairs there, and in front of them set up a large TV monitor and run some kind of cable channel on it. Even such a simple move could make it easier for wives to go shopping and relieve them of their nervous rush.
Photo: saintbob
If I opened a new store for women, in which they could shop calmly and with pleasure, I would make sure that next to it there was some institution that satisfies the desires of men. This could be, for example, a computer store where men could happily spend half an hour. And if I opened a computer salon, then, accordingly, I would try to place it next to some women's clothing store. Thus, I would provide myself with crowds of grateful male buyers.
The second strategy, which ultimately brings more pleasure to both men and women, is to involve the man in the shopping process. This is not an easy task, especially for individual men, but nevertheless it is not impossible.
We conducted research for the company Thomasville, a furniture manufacturer, suggested that involving men in the direct shopping process could help sell large and expensive items such as furniture. The solution turned out to be quite simple. We suggested creating all kinds of advertising posters for the store, which would show the process of making furniture step by step, and confirm all this with photographs from the workshop, which would clearly demonstrate that the furniture is not only good looking, but also well made. Showing the laborious process of making furniture will help men agree more quickly on the price, and also allow them to pass the time while their wives select models and check the quality of the upholstery.
There is one product that men consistently buy more often than women. This is beer … They buy it from any store, be it a supermarket or a convenience store. (They're also more likely to buy junk food, chips and salty pretzels, nuts, and other goodies just to pass the time.) Therefore, we advised our customer, the supermarket owner, to have a beer tasting every Saturday afternoons right in the department where the beer is sold. Visitors could be offered new brands of beer or new varieties of already well-known producers for testing. Such tastings would serve as a good advertisement for the sale of beer, but even this is not the main task. These promotions can attract more male shoppers to the store, thereby transforming it into a male-oriented retail space.
Photo: hyperscholar
This goal should be pursued by all shop owners today. In any area of business, you need to be able to predict how the social role of men can change in society. The future belongs to those entrepreneurs who can determine this first. Here's a good general rule of thumb: Think about areas where women are still dominant and think about how to make them attractive to men.
See how microwaves are sold now. The most important information on the instructions for use is their power. Men were interested in the same thing when buying vacuum cleaners. When we asked them what they paid attention to in the first place, they answered: "For traction", that is, for power. As a result, manufacturers of vacuum cleaners now boast about the number of amperes. In both cases household appliances are acquiring more and more macho traits, and men, on the contrary, lose them. Perhaps they will meet somewhere in between.