Women outspend men in online shopping, says study

NEW DELHI: Women are scripting the success story of e-tailers in the country . They are not only outspending men while shopping online, they are also proving to be more aggressive internet-and techsavvy gender, when it comes to buying things through their smartphones.

Women are more likely to use plastic money , mobile apps and online travel portals, a study by American Express and Nielsen said. They are more active on the internet (47 hours spent per week on non-workrelated activities) compared to men (28 hours spent per week on non-work-related activities). And when it comes to mobile apps, there is a near universal adoption among them (98%) compared to a lower penetration among men (81%).

While 74% women said they prefer using plastic money while shopping online, around 69% of men said they would rather play safe and opt for the cash-on-delivery (COD) route, revealed the report (target average age group of 33 years and average yearly income of Rs 14.8 lakh and access to the Internet for a minimum of five hours a week).

Interestingly , around 98% of respondents, both men and women, said they access the internet for online shopping, while 96% said they do it for social networking, followed by banking (95%), booking tick ets (95%) and e-mails (95%).Plastic money is the most popular mode of payment in metros (71%), while COD has higher usage in Tier 1cities (72%), the survey said.

Shopping has always been the favourite pastime for India and now it has become the “virtual pastime“, said Manoj Adlakha, VP & GM -consumer & merchant services and CEO, American Express Banking.

Discounts, convenience, freedom to compare prices and cash payment are some of the compelling reasons driving people here to shop online.Around 70% of heavy internet users said they prefer shopping online due to discounts.

However, the equation changes dramatically keeping in line with the marital status of shoppers. Around 69% of unmarried buyers said discount days are reason they shop online while 58% of married buyers said they do the same.When it comes to dividing resources between online and offline shopping, singles keep 63% of their budget for online shopping, while married couples tend to keep around 57%.