Appealing to women consumers online
Small business marketing online series
Originally published in Small Business Charleston, March 2009
By Tiffany Jonas
A survey of web users that included 600 women found that 65% of consumers will not shop on a poorly designed website, even if it's the site of a favorite brand. Here are three ways to improve your standing with the women who visit your website.
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In my October column I mentioned an eye-opening BusinessWeek statistic: women make 83% of all consumer purchases. And these days, they have higher expectations than ever about web design and the customer experience. According to Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned, authors of Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy, a survey of Internet users that included 600 women found that 65% of consumers will not shop on a poorly designed website, even if it's the site of a favorite brand.
No time for a complete website redesign at the moment? Here are three quick steps you can take to improve your standing with the women consumers who visit your website:
1 } "An 800 number should be prominently displayed on the home page and all other pages," say Johnson and Learned. Hiding your contact information or providing only an impersonal contact form conveys the message, "You're a nuisance we can do without." Hardly a warm welcome to a gender known for relationships! If you're worried you’ll be overwhelmed with calls, don't be. Many times, just the fact that they know they can call you if needed is reassurance enough.
2 } "Avoid mandatory registrations," write Johnson and Learned. "Site registration forms feel like a waste of time to most site visitors and may frustrate them into leaving without buying." One woman told me that while she was actively shopping for a house, she immediately left any website that required her to register before viewing homes for sale. While it's tempting to try to collect information from your visitors, you'll come out ahead if you allow them to browse anonymously until they've decided to take the next step.
3 } "Keep prices visible. Wherever a product first displays, include the price," advise the authors. "When you save customers time by not forcing them to delve further in the layers of your site at the very beginning of their research, you generate goodwill." Women tend to gather more information than men before making a decision, so make key information easy to find!
Service businesses aren't off the hook here. If you can't display exact pricing, providing a general idea can still be helpful, especially if your target market includes people who may not be familiar with pricing in your industry. It's better for you both to find out if you're in the same ballpark before you spend time on a project that's not going anywhere.
Good luck!
About the author
Aio Design founder Tiffany Jonas graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in advertising from the Missouri School of Journalism, a top journalism school. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and has taken coursework toward an MBA. She’s a member of Mensa, an organization for those who have tested in the top two percent of the population on a standardized intelligence test. She has been the two-time recipient of an 11-state award for design, honored at the Chicago Book & Media Show and was chosen as one of the Charleston Regional Business Journal’s 2008 Forty Under 40, honoring those who have achieved professional success while contributing to the community.
