MasterCard: Women shop more than men

Singapore - More women than men are shopping online with women making up 58% of frequent online shoppers, according to new research by MasterCard.

To some it the results did not come as a big surprise, as women are deemed as shopaholics, but is cause for joy to certain retails segments which saw frequent patronage in categories like clothes and accessories (62%), books and arts (42%) and cosmetics (39%).

However the percentage of online purchases by women is not an indicator of ‘quality purchases' like the ‘amount of money spent'. Many women consider their purchases as implusive buys and 75% of female consumers view the relative lower prices and substantial discounts as reasons for purchase, while 49% were drawn to the products due to its uniqueness and were only available online.

While both gender do conduct research before making purchases, males still lead when it comes to doing ‘homework' before they make the buy. 85% of male consumers will research via internet (89%) or merchant websites(64%) while Ladies who research when they shop online, only clocked 85%.  Interesting to note however is that word-of-mouth seems to have a bigger hold and influencer for ladies (51%) as compared to men (44%).

It was revealed too that online shopping as a whole was hindered by security issues as 35% of women surveyed felt insecure about online shopping as did 35% of men.

The survey size was 4157 and the countries involved in the research included Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singaproe, South Korea and Thailand.