Women rules ecommerce space: Facts and Figures

Ecommerce, in it’s early days was male-dominant, as the  product categories were limited to books, computers, consumer electronics and music. Also, having an ability to browse variety of product prices without having to visit the physical store sounded even more attractive to them. No later, when the concept of online shopping got limelight through social networking sites, more and more retailers adopted the idea of selling online. This opened the doors for new product categories that included apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, home good and much more. Since then till date, ecommerce is the dominion of women.  Let me tell you how?

In this blog, we will discuss on how women buyers rule the ecommerce space, highlighting some of the facts and figures.  

Women and shopping, both go hand in hand. With increasing popularity of ecommerce, today women can make purchase as well as socialize, from the comfort of their home. So, it’s not surprising that women account for over 80% of consumer spending, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the early days, ecommerce consumers were predominantly men, but expectation to what an ecommerce purchaser should be, was missing. Slowly and gradually, considering the fact that women are key decision-maker for shopping household products, more and more retailers started expanding their products line that were more female-oriented. This encouraged many female-oriented brands to sell online. But, the question in mind “who would want to shop for clothes or shoes without having an ability to try them on? ”was partially attributed to a wider availability of products and shopping experience that women want.

Fashion brands started getting immense popularity among women over the web, as it allowed them to browse a variety of brands they like as well as compare prices, which automatically encouraged them to shop online. And today, it is considered to be one of the largest product segment, online. eCommerce automation has enabled these fashion brands to remind the women of discount offer on their favorite products, auto-suggest products that are similar to their choices, send alerts about a product that is now available but was out-of-stock earlier.

Nearly 90% of the women surveyed buy clothing and accessories online and 83% buy cosmetics. Zappos, Gilt Groupe, Etsy and Groupon are leading shopping sites that drive majority of female shoppers, and brands like e.l.f. Cosmetics, Boden, Stella & Dot are growing successfully.

Whether at home, work, cafe – women can access any of their favorite brands and also purchase them, using their smartphones. Among the common survey respondents, 63% of the women say they browse the web for products and services, at least once per day, while 30% of them are doing so more than one time, per day. Nearly 90% of the women surveyed buy some clothing and accessories online and 83% buy some cosmetics.

Below infographic will highlight men vs women online shopping stats, and it’s truly women who rule the ecommerce space

Most of the statistics in the infographic are driven by the young generation. Among women between 18-29 years, today more than 50% prefer online rather than offline shopping, compared to 48% among 30-49 years, while 42% for those between 50-60 years of age. From those, 60%  of 18-29 years of age shop on their smartphones, compared to 38% for those between 40-49 years of age.