Women make up two-fifths of the Internet audience. Yet very few Web businesses target them. It’s a lost opportunity, argues Azeem Azhar
Why don’t women like the Web? Nearly four million of Britain’s 10-million Web users are women, and they are joining at a faster rate than men: four years ago women represented only 30% of the online population.
Yet of the few Web sites which publish details of their customers, most show that only a quarter to a third of their users are women. So where are the missing millions?
Even with Web access, women are much less likely to log on than men. Data in both the United Kingdom and the United States show that women go online less often and for shorter periods than men.
It is true that a great deal of Internet activity has reflected its scientific and technical background. Selling Internet routers online or providing software are more obvious fits than, for instance, delivering careers advice.
But the Internet is no longer solely a self-reflective beast. Its real value lies in solving everyday problems for companies and their customers, and it is now a fairly stable platform for commerce.
But while women control the vast majority of household spending (about 80% in the US), the Web is one of the few places where male shoppers outnumber female ones.
This is an odd situation. The same rules that apply in the real world should apply to the Web, with its superb selling potential. You’ve read the review, now buy the product. Surprisingly, few online investments in the UK attempt to target female audiences. Good exceptions include Arcadia, a shopping service, and Jamba, a website delivered by Carlton.
The weakness of current offerings is their one-size-fits-all-approach. It doesn’t. Research shows that men and women behave differently online. The crass generalisations are these:
l Women tend to be more results-oriented. They seek an answer rather than surf their days away. US research suggests they “use the Net in a very utilitarian way”. They want to “solve problems and keep in touch with their families”.
l Women prioritise time- and money-saving activities. Men aim for depth of content. (Some exceptions: online gaming and entertainment news attract women.)
l Women tend to be less comfortable with technology than men, and are less likely to be optimistic about its opportunities, according to Forrester Research. Websites with complex designs and clever bells-and- whistles are likely to be more confusing and less attractive than simple, intuitive, trustworthy ones. (Surely good advice for anyone building a website.)
The cause of this part of the gender gap may lie in the birth and delivery of Web businesses. This process is still poorly understood in many corporations struggling to come to terms with the strategic value of the Net.
As pre-eminent Web pundit Jakob Nielsen argues, online operations are plagued by unclear objectives. Coupled with designing to satisfy a firm’s top executives rather than the audience, this leads to a large number of inadequate websites. Poor market research, opinion rather than data, and a lot of people (mainly men) arguing their pitch results in poor websites in general and makes them deeply unattractive for a female audience.
One exception is New York-based . Attracting an active membership approaching one million and a monthly audience three times that, iVillagebills itself as “real solutions for real women”. It delivers a network of sites aimed at women.
Ranging from Parentsoup, a parenting service, to Moneylife, a personal finance operation, each site stresses problem solving, participation and community. Parentsoup, for example, has dozens of active discussion boards on subjects such as raising troublesome children or dealing with teething toddlers. Online chats with childcare experts are typical daily events.
The power of iVillage is its ability to deliver a qualified, captive audience to marketers. The emphasis on participation gives their users a stake in the service, encouraging them to come back and rewarding them when they do. The average user views far more iVillage pages per month than most sites, except blockbusters like Yahoo!.
This repeat business drives a strong relationship that turns into significant advertising dollars and commerce revenues. In 1998, its second year of business, iVillage brought in $15-million. Admittedly, this pales in comparison with its overall loss of $46-million, but it is still early days. Investors love it. The company debuted on the USstock market a month ago. In true Internet style, the stock hit the sky, tripling in value on the first day. Now the business is worth $1,5- billion.
This presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs in the UK. Very few British websites appear to be trying to create a female audience for marketers to address mercilessly.
Without a high-calibre business like iVillage or the LookSmart directory service, which attracts a 61% female audience, they will be an increasingly difficult group to reach. The first firms to create value-for-money and value-for-time Web content and tools aimed at and marketed to women could build this critical audience.
Advertisers and retailers, particularly those outside the low-margin computer hardware business, will move in. The first- mover advantage is crucial online. Act quickly and success could be on the cards.