New Research Shows eCommerce Retailers Win with Women by Recreating a Window Shopping Experience: Sparking Inspiration and Showing Products in Context
Belmont, CA (PRWEB) October 20, 2010
Belmont, CA and Santa Clara, CA, October 20, 2010 - BlogHer, Inc., the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online, and Create with Context, Inc., a leading digital products research and design consultancy, today announced the results of a joint research study of women, their perspectives on online vs. offline shopping, and the layers of influence that drive their purchasing research and decision-making.
Controlling over 80% of the household spending, the female demographic represents a trillion dollar market in the US alone. Currently, women expect eCommerce to deliver efficiency, breadth of information and the best deals, but miss the inspiration and social experience that retail shopping still delivers. The purpose of â??Women, the Web and Their Walletsâ? is to shed light on how brands and businesses could be building better products and websites for womenâ?¦and how they can provide women with the tools and insights they need to commit their dollars in this challenging economy.
Key findings from the study include:
Women â??canâ??t live withoutâ? their computers and mobile phones, favoring them to a significant degree over passive entertainment devices, such as televisions
Women cite online shopping as more fast, efficient, informational and economical, with 81% of women believing online shopping is where to get â??the best dealâ?. 62% of women also believe a clean and uncluttered website is crucial to a good online shopping experience.
Design is a critical factor for most women, encompassing look and feel, user interface and experience, and ease of use
Women visit a physical store when they seek inspiration (49%) or want to see something in context (67%), signaling a missed opportunity for online retailers
Women want to find products based on criteria that drive their purchase decisions â?? such as aesthetics or integration into the home - but eCommerce filtering tools tend instead to focus on manufacturer features and functions
Womenâ??s adoption of social networking and social tools points to missed opportunities to incorporate social elements into shopping, customer support and even console gaming
Women prefer to read product information, opinions and reviews from users, not companies, with blogs being the preferred over message boards and social networks specifically when it comes to finding product recommendations
â??eCommerce today doesnâ??t support how women want to find products and make purchase decisions,â? says Ilana Westerman, principal at Create with Context, Inc. â??While eCommerce can be fast and efficient when you know exactly what you want, it doesnâ??t support the way women shop: browsing, window shopping, exploring for new products, and imaging how products would integrate into their lives. eCommerce sites have missed many opportunities to provide women with the shopping experience they want online, and those who design these experiences in the future will win.â?
â??Women expect an information-rich shopping environment online, and user opinions and reviews are a highly-desired part of that shopping experience,â? said Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder and COO of BlogHer, Inc. â??With blogs providing rich context about the user, and substantive and interactive discussions about products, itâ??s natural that women cite blogs as a top source of product recommendations during purchasing research.â?
About the Survey
â??Women, the Web and Their Walletsâ? was conducted using the following samples:
A general U.S. population sample was fielded in 10 U.S. geographies, including New York, Chicago, Denver, San Diego, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, South Florida, Dallas and Portland, OR, consisted of 1,131 female respondents. The margin of error is +/- 2.87%.
A BlogHer Network sample, fielded across an audience of 23 million users, consisted of a BlogHer web network intercept sample of 1,157 female respondents. The margin of error is +/- 2.87%.
All portions of the study were conducted in August 2010. Unless otherwise noted, responses from the two samples were not combined.
The results of the â??Women, the Web and Their Walletsâ? study can be found here:
http://www.blogher.com/women-web-and-their-Wallets
http://createwithcontext.com/womenwebWallets.html
About BlogHer
Reaching more than 23 million women each month (Nielsen Site Census, August 2010), BlogHer is the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online. Founded in February 2005 by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, BlogHerâ??s mission is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment. Today BlogHer creates opportunities for members via a community hub (http://www.blogher.com), annual conferences and a publishing network of more than 2,500 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates. BlogHer provides the highest quality content on a range of topics, with all blogs continually edited to meet strict editorial standards, including content quality, category relevance and blog frequency. BlogHer enjoys a strategic partnership with iVillage, part of Women@NBCU. BlogHerâ??s investors are Venrock, GE/NBC Universal's Peacock Equity Fund, and Azure Capital Partners.
About Create with Context
Create with Context is a strategic research and design consultancy focused on creating innovative digital products. The firmâ??s unique approach, coined â??calculated innovation,â? draws on a deep understanding of people, context and technology to help clients create successful products that are grounded in customer needs. Create with Context offers a broad set of innovation services tailored to help companies at any stage in the development process, including making existing products easier to use, defining next-generation products and entering entirely new markets. Based in Silicon Valley, Create with Context provides innovation services across web, mobile, consumer electronics and desktop software to a variety of clients including emerging technology startups, government and the Fortune 500. For more information, visit http://www.createwithcontext.com.
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