Commentary
Go Girl!
- by December 18, 2000
In a press release on December 7th from Greenfield Online's ongoing Digital Consumer series that examines opinions of the online public on ecommerce issues, a new study finds that finally the online world now mirrors the offline world in which women dominate retail shopping.
For two quarters in a row, more women than men have made purchases online, and their buying priorities are different. For the quarter ending Sept. 30, women buyers outnumbered men by two percent and the previous quarter by four percent. Both sexes buy books - the leading item purchased online - at about the same rate, but then selections change. Clothing, while second among purchases by females, is sixth among men, for example.
And, Rudy Nadilo, Greenfield, Online CEO, says, "Our research shows that the longer people have been online, the more likely they are to purchase on the Web." 68 % of the survey respondents who have been online for only six months made a purchase within the quarter, compared to 90 percent of those with three years or more on the Web.
The top five categories of items purchased during the third quarter of 2000 compared with levels from previous quarters are:
And here’s the ranking between the sexes:
+-----------------+-------------------+ Source: Greenfield Online +-------------------+------+------+------+
| | 3Q | 2Q | 3Q |
| | 2000 | 2000 | 1999 |
+-------------------+------+------+------+
| Books | 25% | 17% | 26% |
| CDs | 20% | 13% | 24% |
| Clothing | 16% | 12% | 9% |
| Computer
Software | 14% | 9% | 21% |
| Airline Tickets | 13% | 10% | 12% |
+-------------------+------+------+------+
| Women | Men |
+-----------------+-------------------+
| Books | Books |
| Clothing | CDs
|
| CDs | Computer Software |
| Health/Beauty | Computer Hardware |
| Airline Tickets | Airline Tickets |
+-----------------+-------------------+
