Redefining the rules of fashion marketing around gender

There’s something about shopping for clothes that divides the genders.

Of course it’s a sweeping statement, but ask females and males about their thoughts on shopping for clothes and you’ll typically get very different responses.

Research by Forsee suggests men convert at a higher percentage than women and their purchases have a higher value than those of female shoppers, suggesting they shop for specific items to buy (CPC Strategy, 2017). The same research also suggests that males are less likely to recommend a site than females. Some also say that male shoppers will come back more routinely to buy what they know they like, while females spend more time browsing and trying new products (CPC Strategy, 2017).

Of course some of this could be to do with breadth of choice and societal pressures, but nevertheless it still suggests we need to modify our marketing tactics according to the gender that the shopper identifies with.

In this post, we take a look at how you can change your marketing tactics according to gender – what marketing message or tactics you may want to prioritise according to whether someone is buying menswear or women’s fashion.

Difference in attitudes

You may not hear about the growth of the menswear market as much as female fashion but according to some it represents one of the biggest growth areas in eCommerce (Quartz, 2015). A lot of this success could be attributed to eCommerce – the ability to buy clothes quickly with minimum fuss.

Some buyers of menswear even shun a unique experience offered by brands in favour of finding clothes quickly and conveniently through the likes of Amazon who successfully host a plethora of menswear brands on their platform. Buying womens’ fashion from Amazon rather than ASOS may seem like alien concept to most but to menswear shoppers, it seems like a reasonable option.

This difference in attitude reflects my belief that in general men place an emphasis on wanting things quickly and conveniently. They’ll spend less time browsing and more time finding specific items they know they need. It could mean that promoting an efficient search function on your website or fast delivery might be more appealing to buyers of menswear than to females who may value browsing and richer customer content such as video and styling blogs.

Prioritising messages

Personalisation is key to both audiences but the way you use it in menswear and women’s fashion may differ. You should use the customer’s data to create personalised suggestions for both sets of shoppers but it might be worth prioritising different messages for the different sets of shoppers. For instance, promoting breadth of choice, reviews, recommendations and access to richer content might attract more attention in female fashion while menswear shoppers may prioritise the ability find what they’re looking for fast.

And when it comes to email you may want to prioritise replenishment emails for menswear shoppers who want to stock-up on tried and trusted items. It might be wiser to push requests for recommendations and social shopping for female fashions who view retail as a recreational activity that they’re likely to talk to their friends about.

So when it comes to marketing to your shoppers don’t think that one message will fit all. It’s important to consider both individual preferences and the impact of gender behaviour on the online shopping experience.

And remember, it’s possible to deliver an entirely customised shopping experience using behavioural targeting tools such as PureTargeting to cater for those preferences and behaviours.