The Washington Post
Women out-shopped men on the Internet during the holidays for the first time ever, infiltrating a retail realm once dominated by young, wealthy white males, according to a national survey released Tuesday by a nonprofit research group.
Of the 29 million Internet users who bought gifts online between Thanksgiving and Christmas, about 58 percent were women, up from 50 percent last year, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found after polling more than 2,000 adults with Internet access.
The research group’s findings suggest women have crossed a major threshold in cyberspace, where the gender mix is becoming more consistent with the traditional retail world.
"It’s a vote of confidence for the online environment," said Lee Rainie, the group’s director. "It means women think of the Internet in a much more serious way."
Young, white, educated men are classic early adopters of any technology, and they dominated online shopping in its infancy. As the Internet grew in popularity, though, female shoppers prevailed, analysts said.
Dan Hess, a vice president of ComScore Networks Inc., which tracks online retail sales, said retailers need to continue making the Internet convenient to keep momentum going.
"They should continue blurring the lines between online and off-line shopping," Hess said. "It should not be something that is only comfortable for tech-savvy people of specific gender."
To that end, many retailers now allow shoppers who buy merchandise online to return their purchases to stores, an uncommon policy only two years ago. Some, including J.C. Penney Co., also made it easier for shoppers to buy catalogue merchandise online. "They don’t force you to go through the whole shopping process start to finish just because you’re switching from the catalogue to the Internet," Hess said.
Consumers also spent more money online, about $392 per person, compared with about $330 last year.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.