Male e-commerce habits examined

Thursday, November 22, 2012 - 13:38 by David Aiken

A new report from Econsultancy has outlined the various traits that define men when they are carrying out safe shopping online.

It is predominantly aimed at helping e-commerce companies work out how to best tailor their sites to the needs of male consumers, but it also provides an interesting insight into the masculine psyche that anyone would appreciate.

Firstly, it points out that men are generally less patient than women when shopping online, which means they will be less likely to tolerate obstacles that get in the way of them making a purchase. This includes error messages, being asked for unnecessary information and having trouble when looking for the products and services they want to access.

Men also prefer a consistency of experience when using an e-commerce site, so when things suddenly change half way through, they can be more likely to shop elsewhere and abandon their online cart.

While men have been found to feel similarly strongly about retailer transparency as their female consumer counterparts, they are less bothered about the delivery and returns policies operated by e-commerce retailers.

When it comes to decision making, a male will make a transaction via safe shopping online, in much less time than a woman, providing they are happy with the product description and price that is being offered to them.

Although returns and delivery policies may not concern them as much, men are happier to engage with customer services via a phone conversation than women. This does, of course, require that some kind of helpline is in place and is partly to do with their lack of patience.

So it turns out that men are temperamental creatures, easily swayed by annoyance and more likely to decide on whether or not to purchase something in a short amount of time. This makes e-commerce an ideal form of retail for them.