The Ipsos Mackay Report
Men, women and shopping
Introduction
As part of our How We Shop report (February 2012) fieldwork we asked our
affinity groups about the differences they perceived in the way men shop
and women shop, across all product categories from cars to groceries.
What motivated men to shop? What motivated women to shop? Did the
sexes take different approaches to shopping? What was their experience of
shopping and how did this differ for men and women?
We asked women for their thoughts on themselves and also on men, and vice
versa with our male participants. Because of this we have identified the
gender of each participant quoted.
This mini report on the differences between men and women summarises the
findings of 16 affinity group discussions with Australian men and women in
their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, conducted in Sydney, Melbourne,
Bendigo, Blue Mountains and Perth in January 2012.
Note that consumers’ responses should be viewed within the context of their
general attitudes to shopping, as outlined in the main How We Shop report.
Get in, get out! Men take the guerrilla approach to shopping
Shopping was a bore and chore, according to most of the men in our study,
particularly when it came to shopping for food, clothing and home-wares.
Not surprisingly, trips to the shops were approached with a guerrilla-like
mentality and focus on the efficient use of time. Men walked in store aiming
to fulfil a specific objective, whether it is to buy a pair of jeans or complete
the weekly grocery shop.
Man 1: Women browse, men just want to buy and go.
Man 2: I hate browsing. It’s a waste of time.
Man 3: I just grab whatever and get out of there.
Man 4: Most men like to get in and get out. I speed walk, I know where
I am going, I look at the map.
Both male and female participants believed that when men shopped they
generally knew exactly what they were looking for, they would find it, make a
decisive purchase and get out of the store quickly.
Woman: My husband hates shopping. If he wants to buy something like
jeans, he goes in, he knows which ones he wants, he buys them, and
that’s it. I say, ‘should we look around?’ He says ‘no, I want this one, I
don’t care if I pay more money’.
Man 1: If you’re going out to buy a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, how long
does it take you?
Man 2: Five minutes.
Man 1: Exactly!
Man 3: I’ll go to Kelly Country and say ‘there’s a nice suit.’ I will look in
the window and say ‘yep, I’ll take it’ and walk out.
It’s a similar story at the supermarket.
Man: Men are up and down the aisles at rapid speed. Men know what
they want straight away. They just go ‘yeah, this and this’.
Woman 1: When Larry goes food shopping, if there are more than four
people at the checkout he just abandons his trolley and walks out.
Woman 2: If I send [my husband] to Woolworths and say I need some
tomato sauce, he’ll just grab anything, but I say ‘babe, if you look at
this tomato sauce, it’s half the price. That one’s on sale’. And he’ll be
like ‘whatever’, ‘cos he just grabs one. He wants to get in and out. He
says ‘I’d rather be home doing other things than standing in a shop’.
Men showed a tendency to buy a multiple of items they liked, clothes in
particular, which helped them avoid having to shop regularly.
Man: I buy clothes once a year – a few t-shirts, pairs of jeans, new
boardies, whatever – there, boom! All in one and at the one store.
You’re good for the next year.
Woman: If they find a good thing they’ll buy it in 10 colours. They won’t
try it on in 10 colours. They won’t try it on at all. They see something,
[and] say, ‘that’s my size, I’m just going to take it’.
For some men, the get-in-and-get-out approach to shopping even applied to
larger traditionally ‘male’ purchases like cars and bikes.
Woman: If [men] want a bike they go and get a bike. Like [my
husband] wanted a Harley and he found one and drove it home on a
test drive, and said ‘this is the one that I like’, and he drove back and
bought it.
Woman: I said I really want a Mini [car]. The next day [my husband]
rang up for a test drive. And I was like ‘what?’ So we went for a test
drive and he was like ‘how much? Good. Sign’.
But it’s a different story for men when shopping for hardware and electronics –
browsing is no longer a dirty word.
Unlike clothes and food, both male and female participants thought that
men enjoyed shopping for ‘blokey’ products such as tools and gadgets and
were eager to use the web for research and/or purchases when shopping for
these products.
Woman: My husband has this old Holden’ 59 ute and that’s all he shops
for. He’s always on eBay looking for parts and bits and pieces. The
Holden sign broke so every night he’s searching for this sign and then
he’s looking for the blinds the old Holdens used to have. I get emails
constantly coming in from eBay, they’re all Holden, Holden, Holden.
Woman: My dad spends hours and hours researching electrical goods
online. Then he’ll go into the shops to see the ones he wants, and then
he’ll buy it in-store.
Woman: [My son] loves Bunnings. He always comes back with a lot
more than Jackie [his wife] would’ve wanted him to buy.
For women, shopping is more about leisure
Both male and female participants expressed that shopping fulfilled different
needs and desires for women. Men were focused on ‘results’ and saw any
lack of purchasing as a failure to meet their objective. In contrast, women
were more open to the idea of shopping for leisure and for social reasons,
with friends and family. Except when it came to groceries, they didn’t always
mind returning home empty-handed.
Woman: Every now and again I’ll say to Aidan, ‘I’m going shopping’.
And he says ‘what are you getting?’ and I say ‘nothing I just need to
get out of the house’. And he doesn’t get that. And when I come
back and I haven’t bought anything, he’s like ‘why didn’t you go to
the beach, why didn’t you go for a walk?’
Woman: Men wouldn’t go to the shops as a matter of filling the day. It
wouldn’t be [my husband’s] first thought if he had a free day.
Man: I think for women shopping is still a social outlet. They’ll go as a
group and do shopping together as a group, mother and daughter,
grandmother and granddaughter.
Women don’t mind taking their time to make the right choice
Men viewed an abundance of choice as a hindrance when shopping while
in contrast woman enjoyed the more time-consuming process of looking in
multiple stores for items that met all of their requirements.
Man: I remember you going to get your new couch [with your wife].
Every weekend you were like ‘another weekend looking for the bloody
couch’. It went on for eight weeks man.
Man: She’ll try on half a dozen shirts. All the same shape, all the same
style but different colours. And if the neckline isn’t just right, she still
won’t buy it.
Man: [Women] will try on 50 things and go ‘yeah, nah, none of them,’
but you just tried on 50 things!
Man: The missus will have a look at that one, and have a look at that
one, and have a look at that one, and then she’ll go back to the first
bastard she looked at and walk out ... She does the same thing on
everything, cans of beans.
When it comes to price men and women have different priorities
Price rated highly on the priority list for most women when deciding to make a
purchase and they were willing to put in the time to search for the best deal.
Men, on the other hand, sometimes didn’t consider it all, to the point of not
bothering to enquire about price before making a purchase.
Woman 1: [Men] don’t even check the prices. [My partner] took a
bike tyre to get it fixed the other day … and he didn’t even ask the
price. And I thought ‘what if that comes back and it’s like three
hundred dollars?’
Woman 2: [Men] don’t care about the price. They live for the moment.
Man: I generally don’t give a rats’ about $5 here or $10 there. It
doesn’t bother me. My lovely lady, she scrimps and saves every single
penny. If she gets overcharged twenty cents, she’s pissed off. It’s a
different mentality.
Woman: Months before Christmas I’ll have a list of ideas of what I’m
getting everyone and for a few months I’ll keep an eye on what’s on
sale. But Graham, two days before Christmas will go and buy
everything. I’ll say ‘darl, that was on special last week for half price’
and he’ll say ‘so, I didn’t need it last week, I need it now’.
Many men were happy to risk paying more by buying the first item they saw
simply for the sake of speed and convenience, particularly when it came to
clothing.
Woman: Men won’t go to ten different stores to check out price.
Man: In my household I know what I want and go and get it and don’t
really care what the price is. It is a consideration but not to the point
where I’m going to drive to three shopping centres over and check
the same product at different places. I don’t have the patience for
shopping.
Women like to use their imaginations, men like the stores to do it for them
When it came to clothes in particular, men appreciated in-store product
display and merchandising as a way to help them make decisions about how
what to buy. And, as previously mentioned, when they found something they
liked, they stuck to it.
Woman 1: Men can’t visualize. They can’t imagine how good they’ll
look in that dress or that shirt on a display on the wall.
Woman 2: My dad’s a mannequin shopper.
Man 1: If I shop for something for Sharon I will buy something that is on
the mannequin.
Man 2: Would you?
Man 1: Yeah because I won’t go through racks and racks and racks. If I
buy a shirt for myself.
Man 3: Wouldn’t you try it on?
Man 1: Yeah but I will buy something that I can see [on display in the
store].
The gender divide may be clear but some questions marks are beginning to
arise
There were startlingly clear differences between how men and women shop.
However, when it came to why men and women shopped, some participants
observed behaviour that undermined gender stereotypes. This was
particularly true when it came to younger men and men shopping for food.
Woman: But the different generation coming through like shopping.
They buy their hair products and skin stuff, clothes. They’re much more
interested in their appearance.
Woman 1: [My son] is more like me.
Woman 2: He is such a woman shopper.
Woman 1: He gets online and Googles everything and checks all the
shops, all the prices. Then he says ‘mum, ‘I’ve found a shop with some
wicked t-shirts and they’re all on sale, can I use your credit card?’
Woman 2: It’s that next generation. The younger ones are more
involved in the fashion, they care about what they look like. This whole
Gen Y thing with guys.
Woman 1: Whereas [his father] would wear the same holey t-shirt for
years.
Woman 3: [The young men] get together and hang out after school
and go shopping together. They’re getting older and trying to impress
the girls.
Woman 1: Geoff doesn’t want to [do online grocery shopping]
because he enjoys his trip down to the shops.
Woman 2: Mark is the same. He doesn’t mind coming to the shops [for
groceries] with me.
In summary, while many of the stereotypes about the men, woman and
shopping still hold, there is no doubt that generational change is occurring. As
men become more interested and engaged in food preparation, their ‘inand-out’ approach to supermarket shopping will shift. As they become more
focused on health and wellbeing (as we have noted in numerous Mind &
Mood reports in recent years), their approach to shopping for health and
beauty products in supermarkets and chemist will also change.
It’s clear too that both men and women are looking for improved service,
engagement and innovation from the Australian retail environment. If women
see shopping as a leisurely and social activity, what are retailers doing to
enhance this experience? If men are mannequin shoppers, relying on service
staff to advise them about the best possible choice of shirt or shoe, what are
retailers doing to ensure this level of personal service? Both men and women
were enthusiastic about online shopping and will continue to drift to that
channel if the ‘bricks-and-mortar’ retail landscape fails to deliver.