Men More Active Social Shoppers than Women

An online study conducted by ROI Research for performance marketing firm Performics in September and October 2011 found men are more likely than women to conduct social shopping activities online. This includes activities like product information and review information research, product comparisons, product availability check and store information retrieval via social networks, shopping sites and deal sites like Groupon and Living Social.

The online survey took place from September 27, 2011 to October 4, 2011 and was conducted among 1,000 participants from the Survey Sampling International panel of more than 6 million respondents. Respondents had to have an active social network account and use social networks at least occasionally in the purchase process to qualify for the survey.

The results revealed that men are more likely to be social shoppers than women. In addition, the study found 87 percent of the surveyed active social media users, both men and women, go to ecommerce sites like Amazon, EBay and retail brand websites to research products. Before making a purchase, 83 percent of respondents said they go to these sites for research and product/price comparisons. Another 59 percent go to social media sites after a purchase to share their experience with friends.

“Women are reported to control about 80 percent of household spending, so it may be surprising for some to see men play a more dominant role in the social shopping and research process,” said Dana Todd, SVP, marketing and business development for Performics in a press release. “But given recent reports of ‘digital dads’ and increases in shared shopping activities across genders, this new data is intriguing. We’ve layered social network behavior with shopping patterns and the results are helpful for marketers trying to predict how social shopping figures into upcoming holiday campaigns. Many may not have considered specifically targeting men in social ads .” (Italics added by the editor for emphasis.)

People are also researching products online while shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. Up to 50 percent of the respondents to the survey said they had accessed a social media network (most notably Facebook) when inside a store, while 62 percent had performed product searches on their mobile devices while in a store. Other findings from the study include:

• 62 percent of respondents conduct competitive price searches while in retail stores

• 41 percent use search engines on their mobile phone to look for information

• 30 percent use barcode scanners to shop for prices

• 25 percent wait to get feedback from social networks before buying

• Of the above 25 percent, 41 percent said they would wait up to 10 minutes for feedback from social networks

The social shopping study examined the role of social networks, shopping sites and deal sites across many different facets of the shopping experience, including phases of the purchase process, product categories, in-store shopping behaviors, gender differences and so forth. To view or download an infographic about the findings or view a copy of the study’s summary of findings, you can visit Performics on SlideShare at: http://www.slideshare.net/performics_us/performics-social-shopping-summary .

Source: http://www.toptenwholesale.com