Whoever said shopping was a woman’s fiefdom?

MUMBAI, INDIA: A recent survey has broken the jinx that it shopping including e-shopping is a woman’s domain. The survey highlights that while men are happy e-shopping, women use their smart phones for social meets.

New data from Nielsen Informate shows that men spend 1.3x more time than women shopping on e-commerce sites every month on an average in India. The reverse is the trend in developed countries like the UK and the US, where women spend twice the amount of time than men shopping on smart phones.

As far as mobile shopping in India is concerned, men tend to be a bit more engaged, though the gap is reducing. "While women may not have the same level of access to credit or debit cards, cash on delivery is levelling the playing field. In developed markets like US, UK and South Korea, women spend twice as much time on mobile shopping than men as access to payment infrastructure is not a challenge for either gender. This could well be the way forward in India too," opines Prashant Singh, MD, Nielsen India.

Nielsen attributes the keen interest by men in online shopping to the male appetite for technology, and the lure from electronics e-tailers—a segment whose sales are largely driven by men.

The survey throws-up yet another interesting finding.

While Indian women use their smart phones for chat and social networking, they lag just a tad behind men in gaming, according to the Nielsen study. It notes that women are just as tech savvy and active on their smart phones as men, but do slightly different things.

"Women represent a small portion of the smart phone universe in the country, with only 20 percent across all ages being active on data-enabled smart phones," says Singh.

Also, women in India consume more music and videos than men on smart phones. They spend 40 percent more time on music streaming apps, and 50 percent more time on video streaming apps as against their male counterparts.

What do you think?