Female shoppers use online shopping to make money go further

Thursday, January 9, 2014 - 12:14 by Simon Crisp

A new report form supermarket giant, Asda, has revealed that women are harnessing safe shopping online so that they can save money and use whatever retail budget they have available with maximum efficiency, according to Internet Retailing.

5500 female consumers participated in the study and researchers found that a surprising number of older women are jumping on the e-commerce bandwagon. Eighty five per cent of those aged over 60 admitted to using online shopping to place orders and make savings, with the majority of the over 70s confirming that they can be more frugal when using the internet and mobile apps to make purchases.

Meanwhile at the other end of the age scale, it was discovered that 90 per cent of young mothers are using the web to compare prices and play different retailers off against one another, to get the best possible deal.

Almost three quarters of respondents said that they own a smartphone, with nearly 80 per cent of the women under 30 confirming that they have used m-commerce apps and mobile browsers to shop online.

Report spokesperson, Hayley Tatum, said that smartphones, tablets and online tools were an excellent way for people to manage household budgets in the modern era, enabling consumers of all ages to get a grip on spending and also stretch their available funds further than ever.

She also praised the fact that older shoppers are getting into the swing of e-commerce, in particular via the use of smartphone apps, which enable them to compare prices on everything from grocery shopping to energy suppliers in an instant.

Twenty eight per cent of Asda's online sales in December 2013 were carried out through its official smartphone app, so it is clearly riding the crest of a wave of support for m-commerce.