Retail stores are responding to one of the biggest changes in the market nowadays – men are doing a lot more of the shopping.
In fact, cooking has become one of the top interests of many men, according to one study, just behind cars and ahead of politics.
As men take more trips to the supermarket and are more often the decision-makers about what will leave the grocery shelves, retailers and manufacturers are rethinking some of their marketing strategies, according to the Nielsen research group.
While women still make 64 percent of shopping trips, men’s expanded shopping role as they take on more household duties continues to grow. Women shop more often at all retail stores except for convenience stores, where male shopping trips outnumber women’s by 57 percent to 43 percent, Nielsen found.
To capitalize, many convenience stores are changing store layouts and in-store signage to appeal to men on the products that are their top purchases – beer, sodas, snacks, juices, bread and milk – for the benefit of retailers and manufacturers.
For many products, women buy more and buy more often, but men tend to spend more. In a study of outlet store spending, Nielson found women spend more than their male counterparts under age 36, but the gap narrows until age 45 when men begin to outspend women.
Women, Nielson found, are more likely to seek out deals and shop with coupons, while men tend to be more optimistic about finances and spend more.
But younger men are more inclined to look for sales too, according to another study by retail analysis firm WSL. Men also ask for help more than women, sign up for rewards programs and read online reviews.
Millennial-aged men are leading the evolution in shopping behaviors, according to the WSL study of 1,500 men and women, which found that 63 percent of men say they search for sales and 53 percent use coupons.
Two-thirds of Millennial-age men use mobile phones to shop compared to half of Generation X men and less than one-third of Baby Boomers. Three-fourths of men say they receive shopping email alerts, and 58 percent say they are ready to make a purchase after reading reviews online.
As for the most popular times to go to the store, both genders prefer shopping on weekends.
Both also have strong preferences to buy brands when choosing products – 80 percent – although brand loyalty is not as strong with Millennials.
If the brand they are looking for is not available, nearly half of Millenials will choose the store brand, one-third will choose another national brand, and the rest will go to another store to find the brand they want.
