Wired Women: Marketers adapt strategies to females’ online behavior

As women move onto the Internet in big numbers – by 2003, 49% will use the Internet compared with 21% in 1998 – marketers are finding that their Web behavior can vary dramatically from that of their male counterparts. And because of those variations, online marketers are working hard to adapt tactics to attract and retain female customers. It’s especially true in the field of automotive marketing.

Men are primarily interested in the look and performance of a car, says Tracy McCarter, director of women’s programs at Autobytel.com. While women are also interested in aesthetics and horsepower, they take a closer look at safety features, reliability and the fun aspects of the vehicle. Women are more apt to stay within a budget than men. And since females take responsibility for 65% to 85% of all service and maintenance follow up once a car is purchased, they want to know how much time they will spend at a service station maintaining the car.

McCarter says that although the automotive industry has come a long way in marketing to women – remember “La Femme,” Dodge’s 1950s pink convertible that arrived complete with a matching pink raincoat, bonnet and boots – it still hasn’t fully grasped women’s economic buying power and continues to be an industry that is not particularly kind and gentle to women.

“Women are not treated as serious and intelligent automotive purchasers and owners,” says McCarter. A testament to that fact is that women, on average, pay $250 to $450 more for the identical vehicle that a man purchases and that their No. 1 complaint at dealerships and service shops is poor treatment. “The horror stories persist,” she says.

To address the specific behavior and interests women have expressed when purchasing a vehicle – women influence 85% of car purchasing decisions – Autobytel.com rolled out Autobytel.com For Her in January. “It’s not so much that women need special treatment, but at the same time women are still not comfortable with the buying process,” says McCarter.

While employing the same basic tools and functionality of the Autobytel.com site, For Her offers detailed information on automotive safety such as crash statistics, an air bag fact sheet and advice on child passenger safety. Women can link to “Care & Repair,” where a trained automotive technician can answer mechanical questions that range from the simple to the more complex. “It’s easy for women to get information in a way that doesn’t assume they know everything,” says McCarter.

At the soon to launch “Roadside Cafe,” visitors will be able to exchange experiences and opinions or chat about all things automotive.

For Her now receives 20,000 hits per month. Because it is so new, marketers are taking acquisition and retention lessons learned from the main site and applying them to the women’s version, says Indi Maini, director of customer retention and promotion. For example, late last month the company launched “4 Door to Your Door,” a direct-to-consumer online buying service. The service was promoted via a 2 million piece e-mail blast that targeted the house file, and for the first time, tested six outside e-mail lists totaling about 400,000 names. The firm requested a number of selects including females with the intent to buy. “We plan to take [the findings] from the e-mail campaign and apply those strategies to the female audience,” says Maini.

And while women behave in very specific ways when shopping for a vehicle, a different set of distinct behavior may emerge in other areas, for example, when a female is researching information for her small business, surfing for an ensemble outfit for an elegant dinner party or buying a stereo for her son’s room. However, in addition to behavior born of specific activities, women and men also exhibit a set of broad attitudes that can be applied across the Internet.

According to Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge, MA, women are moving online at a faster rate than men. Over the next four years, the growth rate for women coming online is predicted to be 19% vs. 13% for men. Currently, females spend an average of six hours per week online vs. nine hours for men. Even though men may be spending more time online, women are showing more advanced shopping behavior, explains Ekaterina Walsh, an analyst at Forrester.

Walsh says that there are typically three steps in making the online transition and that women advance to step three faster than men. During the first step, visitors will purchase a low-cost convenience item and if all goes well, will move to step two and buy a more expensive item, such as an airline ticket or a stereo. Finally, replenishment goods such as health and beauty aids or groceries will be routinely purchased.

During the first three months of 2000, women spent an average of $140 online, compared with $209 for their male counterparts. Those numbers are expected to even out by 2003. The top item women buy online is books, while men most frequently purchase software. The average age of the online female is 40 vs. 42 for men.

As for banner ads, which are struggling with declining clickthrough rates, women are 24% less likely to click on a banner ad than men, and less likely to remember the last ad they clicked on.

Another firm that has researched and analyzed women’s behavior and applied that data to its marketing efforts is Hifi.com, a consumer electronics and entertainment product destination. Consumer electronics is another industry that experts say has not made quick friends with women.

“Women are intimidated buying consumer electronics,” says Laurie Nova, program manager for HerHifi.com, a site started in February so women can “comfortably” learn about, compare and buy electronic products. “They are often talked down to and not taken seriously. The natural assumption is that men buy those products.”

As evidence of women’s buying power in consumer electronics, last year women accounted for about 22% of the $81 billion spent on those products. But despite the numbers, a national study conducted by Hifi.com found that over 55% of women feel electronics retailers do not completely address their needs as buyers; 50% feel somewhat or very intimidated about buying these products; and 64% believe they do not have enough information to make purchasing decisions on the Internet.

To address those issues, HerHifi.com offers a number of innovative products and services, including a navigational tool called “Shop by Room” where visitors can take the product off the shelf and move it from room to room to see how it looks with the decor. “It takes the guesswork out of the products,” says Nova.

Additional female-oriented products were added to Hifi.com’s line of products, including shower radios and baby monitors, and kitchen items such as splash-resistant, under-counter radios and small televisions that can fit on a counter.

“Ask Kate” features an electronics expert who addresses queries via e-mail. “She answers questions in plain English,” says Nova. And an added attraction that women certainly take notice of is the free return shipping and a 45 day return policy, she adds.

Women are also seeing added attractions at cataloger Coldwatercreek.com. Marketers there began an aggressive effort to ramp up the site after noting that the demographics of women buying online during Christmas 1998 began to match the cataloger’s customer profile: affluent, well-educated females age 35 to 55.

At the time the site was not very automated and featured 50 to 70 outlet items, says Karen Reed, vice president and director of the Internet division. The effort took into consideration the well-established Coldwater Creek brand and its images of open space and romance that appeal to women. It also adapted the well defined offline behavior that women demonstrate when shopping, and applied them when developing its online products and services. Now, with 12% of its business coming fromWeb buyers vs. 0.01% a year ago, the cataloger has made numerous upgrades to its site, says Reed.

In addition to offering all of its 2,800 styles from its Home, Natural Elements, Spirit of the West and North Country catalogs, it continues to maintain its popular Outlet @The Creek site. Instant help is available where women can communicate with a customer service rep. After the session ends, an e-mail transcript of the conversation is available if the customer so chooses.

The firm cross-sells ensemble items over the four titles, and the shopper can select items by event. The catalog is also in the early stages of developing a drag-and-drop clipboard for shoppers to move items in and out of its online dressing room. And same day shipping recently started for all Web orders.

Women at Work

Research conducted by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners helped IBM determine that female small business owners and entrepreneurs make purchase decisions in a “slightly different” way than men, says Joan Steltman, market development executive for Internet initiatives at IBM. She says women are more likely to have a Web site than their male counterparts and they gather information from a variety of sources. And while men are interested in how fast a server is and how large the hard drive is, women also want to know about how to use the technology and the benefits it will provide.

With women starting businesses at twice the rate of their male counterparts – 9.1 million business are now owned by women – and opening 1,400 new businesses every day, the goal, says Steltman, “is to provide the information, education and access to products and services that women want.”

The site offers information on creating a Web presence and engaging in e-commerce. A feature called “Lessons From the Leaders” includes insights from women who have leveraged technology to succeed in business. “Learn Online” offers 200 business classes that can be taken over the Internet, and “E-Business Accelerator” features IBM consultants who confer with small business owners. A monthly column by Jane Applegate, executive producer of Applegateway.com, covers current issues and topics, and a weekly advice column offers time management tips.

Steltman says advances are under way to analyze behavior types – such as which areas of the site are highly trafficked – in order to place more emphasis on those topics. An upgrade to the site included a flashing registration tile visitors can click on to receive information targeted to women entrepreneurs. IBM is compiling the data collected from those registrations to learn the specifics about individual female entrepreneurs as opposed to the group in general. The data is being mined to build one-to-one relationships and customize targeted offers and promotions, says Steltman.

However, even though women continue to move online, they’re still slightly more wary than men of sending their credit card numbers into cyberspace. Forrester reports that 46% of women and 43% of men who are online are not making online purchases because they are uncomfortable divulging credit card information.