Consumer Behavior: Women and Shopping

Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior

Women and Shopping

Patricia Huddleston

Michigan State University

Stella Minahan

Deakin University

Consumer Behavior: Women and Shopping

Copyright © Business Expert Press, LLC, 2011.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published in 2011 by

Business Expert Press, LLC

222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017

www.businessexpertpress.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-60649-167-6 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-1-60649-168-3 (e-book)

10.4128/9781606491683

A publication in the Business Expert Press Consumer Behavior collection

Collection ISSN: forthcoming (print)

Collection ISSN: forthcoming (electronic)

Cover design by Jonathan Pennell

Interior design by Scribe, Inc.

First edition: January 2011

Abstract

What does shopping mean to American women? This question is the focus of our book. We profile the American woman and examine how life has changed since her grandmother was young. Women have many choices about when and where to shop; thus retailers need to understand her needs and wants to attract and maintain her business.

We provide a brief history of retailing in the United States to show how the retail industry has changed as women’s lives have changed. Malls have contributed to the development of contemporary society, particularly as a site for relaxation and social connections outside of the home. We examine shopping as a life skill and a craft that is taught, both indirectly and deliberately by parents, particularly mothers.

Our research identified five distinct types of shoppers. Most women tended toward or were clearly identifiable as one of these five types. We delve into each shopping typology and discuss the underlying motivations for the shopping behavior in each group. We discuss identity and creativity, power and independence, seeking solitude, emotional release, and companionship as motivations for shopping and what these mean to the retailer.

Some women love and others loathe shopping. Our goal in this book is to alert retailers, merchandisers, property developers, and manufacturers about the major dos and don’ts to appeal to women. Retail is detail and it is easy to get the simple elements wrong, leading to unhappy customers. For example, we analyze what women want from retail sales staff and explore the customer and sales assistant relationship and its importance to women.

Will shopping remain a female activity or will a new gender balance develop? What are the two consumers segments that present huge opportunities to the retail industry? Insights to these questions are provided in the last chapter.

Key Words

women, shopping, consumer socialization, social shopping, experiential shopping, hedonic, utilitarian, shopping malls, mothers, and daughters

Contents

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Women and Shopping

Chapter 2: Women and Shopping in America

Chapter 3: Women and Place

Chapter 4: Shopping as a Life Skill

Chapter 5: Shopper Types

Chapter 6: The Shopping Experience and How to Improve It

Chapter 7: Implications and Conclusions

Notes

References

Chapter 1

An Introduction to Women and Shopping

Why a book on women and shopping? Why is it important? How do women shop and what does it mean to them? How can marketers and retailers maximize the appeal of their products to women? This book provides a wealth of background information and detailed insights into the topic of American women and shopping. The book is written specifically for business professionals in the following areas:

marketing

apparel and household goods manufacturing

distribution and supply

small to medium enterprise (SME) owners

retailers

advertisers

property developers

mall managers

So why write a book about women and shopping? Because of their consumer spending power, women are crucial to survival in the competitive retail industry in America. Women matter because, worldwide, they control so much of consumer spending. Women’s earning power worldwide is expected to reach $18 trillion by 2014.¹ In addition to their earning power, women also have tremendous influence over total consumer spending. Currently, they control $20 trillion in spending, and by 2014 that figure will increase to $28 trillion.

Today’s women are better educated, have more financial power and decision-making abilities, and have greater mobility than any previous generation of women. They are a formidable influence on the entire retail supply chain from source, to store, to consumption, and to disposal.

We acknowledge that men, particularly of Generation X and Generation Y, are becoming more comfortable with shopping and retailers are providing focused offerings to them, particularly in fashion, health, and beauty. Yet it is the female consumer who reigns supreme, often directly influencing the decision-making of the male shopper. Retailers, marketers, and suppliers who ignore or inadequately respond to the wishes of the female consumer do so at their own peril.

This book provides a fascinating insight into women’s shopping habits and motivations. The book is of interest to business professionals as they will gain a better understanding of the most powerful economic force in the retail industry. Women in contemporary American society are able to shop in a way that their grandmothers would not have dreamed about. Far more than previous generations, women today have more power, are better educated, have far more resources, and are able to make their own decisions—they shop because they can!

Tell me about you and shopping. When we posed that question, we were greeted with good humor and friendly banter. Then women begged us to listen to their favorite shopping stories, demonstrating the importance of shopping in their lives.

The book emerges from our interviews with women, aged 18 to 74, from all over America. They talked to us about how important shopping is in their lives and how dominant shopping is for them socially, extending to their leisure time and their holidays. Patricia Huddleston is a professor of retailing at Michigan State University, teaching students about the science of retail strategy. She has published widely in academic journals and regularly presents her research at conferences. Stella Minahan is a senior lecturer at Deakin Graduate Business School in Australia. She has studied the shopping habits of women in Australia, South Africa, and England. She has profiled several shopping styles and here reports on the shopping styles of American women. We follow women all across America on their shopping trips and share their favorite, funniest, and most poignant moments in the malls. After reading this book, you will have an understanding of the importance of women and shopping to the U.S. economy in general and to the retail industry in particular. You will understand that when women go shopping, they can have a great time even if they don’t buy a thing. Shopping is more complex than making a purchase. We found recurring themes for shopping motivations include the need for power and independence, creativity and self-identity, and meeting emotional needs.

What motivates this behavior? How can retailers and marketers respond? The challenge for retailers and property developers is to create an environment so that women do the following:

have a wonderful experience in the mall

have a positive response to the brands

make purchases

make return visits

The insights in the chapters are for the retail industry generally, and we make suggestions for ways to increase market share by being more knowledgeable and responsive to customers.

This chapter continues with a definition of shopping as we start to explore why women shop. The next question posed is why women matter to the retail industry. In brief, women matter because they are key decision makers in consumer spending. Women are astute and experienced shoppers and must be treated accordingly. Women matter because of their power in consumer spending and because they are crucial to survival in the fiercely competitive retail industry in America. Retail is a crowded industry and only the best survive.

We also review what is known about the way that female biology and sociology affect the way women shop as compared to men. In this chapter, we also profile the contemporary American woman and conclude with an introduction to the remainder of the book. So, what is shopping?

So, What is Shopping?

Shopping, by definition, is to examine goods or services with intent to buy; to hunt through a market in search of a best buy; and to make a search.² Shopping can be roughly divided into two main types or categories: convenience and recreational shopping. Researchers divide reasons for shopping into hedonic and utilitarian motivations. Hedonic shopping refers to shopping for pleasure and appeals to the multisensory, fantasy, and emotive aspects of one’s experience with products.³ On the other hand, utilitarian shopping is motivated by shopping as a task, with product acquisition as the goal. We didn’t set out to focus on either category; we let the women themselves guide that process. In general terms, the women we interviewed were more interested in discussing recreational (hedonic) shopping—that is, the shopping trips that can do the following:

be leisurely

involve some elements of fun

solve problems

include seeing new fashions and trends

just be the experience of strolling

Shopping is certainly not just about buying something, as the women have so clearly said. Shopping is much more than opening the wallet and flashing the plastic. In fact, some shopping trips are made without a purchase, or at least not a planned purchase. Other trips might involve only buying a coffee. Shopping for women is certainly about buying but it is also about leisure, creativity, pleasure, and independence.

We did not ask our interviewees to define shopping. What happened in the majority of interviews is that when the women talked about shopping, they talked about clothes and accessories shopping for themselves. Very few women mentioned the run of the mill domestic grocery shopping. That seems to be an activity that is not considered shopping. It is considered to be a routine activity that is undertaken differently. One of our interviewees said that she loves to clothes shop and to go for groceries but they are very different activities for her:

RESPONDENT: But I…I approach them very differently. Like grocery shopping is very systematic for me, I think about what I’m going to cook for the next week or so, make a list of what I’m going to buy and then go in and pretty systematically, up and down the aisle in the grocery store, purchase what I need to purchase. Don’t usually get things that aren’t on my list.

INTERVIEWER: So it is planned and structured.

RESPONDENT: It’s very…it’s very structured, yeah, it is. Which is totally different from any other kind of shopping.

Why Women Matter

Why do we need to consider women at all? There are arguments in the consumer behavior literature that lead to the focus on women and consumption in this book. In particular, the issue of gender is rarely a significant part of consumption research according to consumer behavior researchers.⁴

Why should the average retailer pay any attention to the opinions and needs of women? The reasons are as follows:

decision-making and financial power

the powers of loyalty and recommendation

The Decision-Making and Financial Power of Women

Women call the shots in the vast majority of consumer spending decisions. In America, women buy or influence 80% of consumer purchases. The group between 18 and 24 years of age alone possess $11 billion a year in disposable income.⁵ Women decide what type of house is bought (91%) and how it will be furnished (94%). Women buy approximately 60% of all cars and influence the decision in approximately 90% of all car purchases. Women purchase over 51% of consumer electronics and 50% of computers (both traditionally male-driven markets).⁶

In contemporary society, women head many households and earn more than their partners in approximately 20% of cases. They may not earn the most money but they certainly have the decision-making power.⁷ The female customer knows that she has that power and is not afraid to use it. Female consumers are powerful purchasers yet there are very few studies on how they shop.⁸ Women have become the primary purchaser, yet are still overlooked.⁹ There is so little research undertaken into women as consumers that it has been said that it is one of the major business knowledge gaps in recent decades.¹⁰

Most of the research into marketing and retail has focused its attention on a variety of segments in an effort to understand and reach the consumer. Why should we now turn our attention to women? The simple answer is because women make up over half of the population and are responsible for more than half of the spending.¹¹ In fact, many men would recognize the familiar view of there being my money and our money when it comes to how women divide the household finances.

American women are freer, better educated, healthier, and spend more time out of the house than at any other time in history. Their participation in the paid and unpaid workforce is increasing, both in full-time and part-time positions. They are remaining single longer, having children later if at all, and climbing the corporate ladder higher