Naturally men and women have different attributes when it comes to the purchase of items. There is unquestionable contrast in attention to details, decision making and interactions during shopping.
Castaño, Perez and Quintanilla agrees with the study done in Australia by Gary Mortimer and Peter Clarke proving women to be social shoppers (45). It is not unusual to see a group of three or four women walking around stores scrutinizing different products or items and even trying them on whilst comparing prices of the varieties in stores. Women value opinion of their friends when purchasing and therefore most of the time they tag along friends in their shopping sprees.
A woman is more attentive on the details of whatever item she is buying. For instance, when buying a pair of pants a woman will check the color, the style, fitting, and even the trendiness of the particular pair. Details are important to women as this gives a sense of control over the shopping and purchase of the product.
A female shopper is less decisive than a male. A woman is likely to spend more time in the mall lingering along the aisles comparing available varieties of products. She enjoys the whole experience, and may spend a significant amount of time comparing prices of items that she does not intend to buy right away, this to her is just a way of gathering information about products for future reference.
On the other hand, their male counterparts display the exact opposite of these behaviors while shopping. Men have been known to be practical shoppers they shop because they have to, and they shop as fast and as efficiently as they can (Castaño, Perez and Quintanilla 47).
Men are lone shoppers. It is very rare to see men shopping in groups; it is not a social affair unlike with the female gender. They prefer to shop quickly and with little or no interaction either with mall attendants or with friends.
A man’s attention to the details of a product is insignificant. If for instance, he is to buy a pair of pants the only thing that matters to him is that the pants fit. It is unlikely for him to start deliberating on other aspects of the pants, for example, if the pants are trendy enough or the color of the pants. This is seen especially with old and middle-aged men.
A man’s shopping is goal directed. He goes to a store or a mall with his mind already set on a particular item that he wants to buy. The idea of shopping is not important to most men and therefore they try to spend as little time as possible in a store or a mall. A man has this specific shirt he wants to buy, he walks into a shop or a mall, picks it and leaves, he will rarely stand to compare prices or quality of the shirt he wants with the rest of the shirts on the display (Castaño, Perez and Quintanilla 49).
From the above discussion, we see the undeniable variance in the consumer habits of men and women. Certain aspects of shopping as portrayed above differ in both genders. Men shop to get over with the task while women love every bit from prior researching to the actual buying.
Works Cited
Castaño, Raquel, María Perez and Claudia Quintanilla. “Cross-border shopping: family narratives.” Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 13.1 (2010): 45 – 57. Print.