Gender plays a role in mobile purchases
Shopping habits vary based on a number of factors, and gender may be a key differentiator for mobile commerce. A recent study from SeeWhy discovered that 22.2 percent of men have completed a purchase on their smartphone, in comparison to 18.2 percent of women. A similar difference was found with tablets, with more men (20.4 percent) buying items on the device than women (16.9 percent).
However, SeeWhy revealed that generation also factors strongly into how different genders shop on these devices. Among 18 to 24 year olds, men and women shop on smartphones roughly the similar amount of time, while five percent more women (19.8 percent) are likely to buy products through their tablets than men (14 percent).
The study also revealed that during tablet-based transactions, the indecision of female shoppers led to about twice as many incomplete transactions as men.
As m-commerce becomes a more critical component of the retail industry, merchants should consider what devices their customers will be shopping on and the audience they are trying to reach. Rather than considering mobile optimization as a single channel, industry professionals may better target potential customers by separating mobile commerce into smartphone- and tablet-based sales avenues.
