Michael Kay

Sex Is At The Heart of Web Sales

"Sex Is At The Heart of Web Sales" talks to an idea that few if any starting web marketers will consider - the overwhelming presence of women in web shopping. Women dominate retail in the off line world and the same will be (or is) true on the web. Women have specific ways of thinking and acting when shopping - the new web entrepreneur nees to be aware of this - whether they are themselves male or female.

1. Women Spend the money: Women instigate, control or complete over 80% of all retail purchases and they constitute over 50% of all corporate purchsing officers (Statistics are for North America).
2. Women earn or control the money: Women on average in North America have pretty much reached wage parity (when you correct for part time and child bearing), but more important they are significant household breadwinners, and either own or will control (as baby boomer women are widowed) the bulk of the capital Women are going to OVERWHELM men economically in the upcoming generation: Women outshine men at school, are taking more degrees, are dominating some faculties and pouring into the high paid professions.
3. Women already DOMINATE commerce on the web: By 2000 more women used the web than men, and 6 out of 10 new web users are women and amongst those wired women 83% are primary financial decision makers There's more! I just didn't want to depress the guys too much.

Have you got the message yet?If you want to sell something on the web, a woman is very likely the customer and almost certainly the researcher.

So What? The so what of this lies in the fact that women's buying behavior is radically different from men's. There are Rules for Selling to Women, here's three to get you started:

Rule 1: Men and women are constructed differently.

Stop giggling!!! There is absolute scientific evidence that women smell, hear, see, touch, and process information and emotions differently from men - differences rooted physically in the way brains develop. Iin the eighth week of pregnancy boy's brains are flooded with testosterone reshaping their brain structure away from emotion, communication and empathy and toward aggression and sex drive. This causes deep differences in the way men and women experience the world – including shopping.

Rule 2: Women and Men are motivated and driven by very different perspectives on lifeIf you are writing web text or a sales letter, we feel these different life experiences would lead to different ‘hot buttons' and ways of communicating as between women and men. Women are driven by community, connectedness, nurturing, safety and their brain circuits favor commnication, gut feelings, emotional memory, and anger suppression. Women also have superior verbal skills.

Rule 3: Women have a very particular and specific shopping patternMen are famous for rushing to the store for a single purchase that they make quickly with minimal research and often on impulse. Women don't do that: they make multiple purchases in one trip, are more likely to research the purchase, more likely to take it back, and less likely to be impulsive. Some thoughts:

• Women are demanding in making the initial purchase in a category, they recoup their time investment by staying more loyal to the brand they've chosen in subsequent purchase cycles increasing retention rates§ Word-of-mouth recommendation is more prevalent among women, they are more likely to recommend to others those brands or salespeople that impress them favorably -- in essence, free marketing of the most powerful kind..
• The big risk – capturing women and losing men. Well, it turns out not to be a risk at all. Companies have found that marketing and service improvements designed to enhance brand appeal among women have resulted in greater customer satisfaction among men as well. The reason? In many respects, women want all the same things as men - and then some. Accordingly, when you meet the higher expectations of women, you are more than fulfilling the demands of men. Experience indicates that men do not abandon brands that tilt the purchase experience toward women. However, we would point out that economically, given the purchase and money data shown earlier – who cares if you lose a few low value male customers?!!!!!

If you're a man (or a woman who's been brought up on traditional methods), isn't it worth re-orienting your thinking. Absolutely! If you think 80% of the market is worth it. And don't forget, after lots of male-orientation, in many categories, the traditional male targets are saturated; the corresponding women's segments are untapped and virtually uncontested by competition.

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