Appeal to Female-Identifying Shoppers With These eCommerce Insights

Women make up nearly half of the world’s population, and according to Forbes, they drive 70-80 percent of all consumer purchasing decisions. As Women’s History Month concludes, MikMak took a closer look at the purchasing habits of female-identifying shoppers so that your brand can celebrate and appeal to these shoppers all year long. Here’s what we found out. 

Activate the omnichannel; female-identifying shoppers are more likely to take their time when shopping

Research shows women’s shopping experiences last longer when compared to men’s. This means women are more likely to take their time, browse, and weigh their options as they peruse the products they purchase. 

To appeal to this shopping style, brands should create an omnichannel experience for all shoppers, especially women. Enabling shoppable media at multiple touchpoints along the shopping journey creates brand awareness and familiarity, ultimately inspiring purchase. For example, a shopper might first hear about your product while watching a television show, then research the product on Google, see an ad on Instagram that reminds them of the product, but ultimately be driven to purchase from a list they saw while browsing Pinterest. Being everywhere that the consumer is, drives shoppers to buy. 

Women are most likely to buy online in the categories of Beauty, Personal Care, and Health Care

Across most product categories, Purchase Intent Rates from female-identifying shoppers are higher than the category benchmarks. According to the MikMak Shopping Index, the Beauty category has the highest Purchase Intent Rate for female shoppers, at 15.3 percent. This means 15.3 percent of women click through to at least one retailer from shoppable media for Beauty brands. Personal Care has the second highest Purchase Intent Rate at 14.2 percent. Health Care is third at 12.7 percent. 

When we take an even closer look at the data, the MikMak Shopping Index indicates that while Alcohol has a Purchase Intent Rate of 12.2 percent overall, Wine brands specifically have a Purchase Intent Rate of 45.4 percent. This means that nearly half the female-identifying shoppers being displayed shoppable media for Wine brands were clicking through to a retailer. 

Consider this when planning your ad spend. If your brand belongs to one of these top categories, it might especially appeal to women.

Facebook and Instagram are the top social channels for female shoppers

According to the MikMak Shopping Index, Facebook/Instagram is the top-performing social channel for female-identifying shoppers, with a Purchase Intent Rate of 16.2 percent. TikTok is second, with a Purchase Intent Rate of 14.7 percent. Meanwhile, Pinterest comes in third, at 10.7 percent. Diversifying your media mix across these channels could help your brand appeal more to female-identifying shoppers.

To amplify your Facebook and Instagram strategy, understand how this audience is currently shopping for your brand. How are female-identifying shoppers currently engaging with you on Facebook and Instagram? What do they do next after engaging with you there? Where else are they active? You can learn critical first-party data like this by partnering with an eCommerce enablement platform like MikMak. 

If your brand is looking to appeal to female-identifying shoppers on TikTok, you can do so by creating authentic and highly attention-grabbing content. Since TikTok is a highly-personalized, short-form video platform, it can be a great place to detect demand spikes, work with influencers, and for your consumers to discover your product.

Meanwhile, Pinterest is ideal when it comes to inspiring purchases and list-building. Popular content on Pinterest includes recipes, party planning, DIY instructions, and decorating/organization. As with all shopping lists, products from Pinterest are highly likely to be purchased, even though it may take a little longer. This is a highly visual platform, so use aesthetically pleasing branding representative of your product.

Appeal to female-identifying shoppers in your marketing and gain their long-term loyalty 

According to Forbes, 85 percent of women say that if they like a brand, they will remain loyal to it. One way your brand can do this is by developing ad campaigns that utilize inclusive messaging and creative. Is your brand using images with women front and center? Can your brand empower its female shoppers with its messaging? 

Beyond ad copy and creative, offering a seamless and personalized shopping experience for shoppers is paramount for brand loyalty. Notice how your brand is being received and shopped for, and use this information to tailor the shopping experience.

An example of a brand that mastered this approach is MikMak customer, COVERGIRL. 

TikTok creator (@jadacmakeupartistry) posted an organic TikTok on her page that featured the COVERGIRL Simply Ageless 3-in-1 Foundation product. COVERGIRL noticed the post went viral, and wanted to amplify its reach and make the influencer’s content shoppable. 

By partnering with MikMak and TikTok, COVERGIRL quickly took action to achieve their goals. They boosted the organic TikTok content with paid support, making the influencer’s content shoppable by driving to MikMak Commerce Creative. This strategy lets consumers choose where and how they want to shop with a seamless path to checkout at any retailer.

Enhancing organic content with shoppable functionality also allowed COVERGIRL to capture valuable insights into the campaign's performance and their consumers' shopping preferences. This quick and nimble attention to the brand’s creative allowed COVERGIRL to see Purchase Intent Rates 5.4 x the Beauty category benchmark on TikTok. 

Your brand can also shorten the path-to-purchase for consumers, and gain valuable real-time consumer insights. Find out more by scheduling a demo with MikMak today.