Sept 2011: SheSpot research study reveals Australian women's latest online habits, mobile consumption and the impact of technology on her shopping

INTRODUCTION

Today’s women are turning their attention from your TV ad to their mobile device. They’re swapping screens before you’ve had time to polish your “digital strategy”. They’re researching your products online. They’re finding your sale dates and discounts on Google, Facebook and within their online communities. Consumers – and their brand preferences - are now influenced by social media, showcased on increasingly smaller screens. As marketers wrestle with consumers’ new habits, new destinations and ever-changing touch points, the buyers themselves have seized more control of the process.

The Woman Behind the Screen, a study conducted by Kidspot and its SheSpot partners – Best Recipes, Easy Weddings and Birth — looks at how today’s women are adopting and integrating technology into their everyday lives. It explores the ways women are consuming online media, including their penchant for social networking and the destinations that dominate their time. It charts how fully she’s embraced mobile technology and what the battle of the screens means from a female perspective.

To understand better women’s developing “mobile mania”, a significant part of the study focuses on mobile apps – where she learns about them, what she downloads, the commercial domains where apps have had an impact, and which ones she can’t live without. Specifically there is a section dedicated to technology & shopping, analyzing the role it plays in purchase-related decisions, her shopping preferences across categories and how frequently she buys online — and on what screen.  The resulting data will prove vital to marketers who want to reach and connect with this evolving and highly influential segment.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are 8.3M women in Australia over the age of 18. Nielsen estimates 80% of these are online, investing over 21 hours per week there, on average. Online now dominates her media consumption, and she spends 40% of her online time on social networks communicating, sharing and connecting faster than she ever could before. Her usage has evolved from email and research to recommending, referring and transacting. Brands interested in being part of her world must consider their digital presence and offering at a strategic level – considering not only how she might engage with them online but how she might impact their products online by sharing,  recommending and even friend-ing. Online is now a daily destination – a well-honed habit – and brands need a role beyond advertisers.

While women may interact (purchase, consume and dispose) with thousands of products and services over the course of their lives, only a fraction of them earn strong, emotional attachments from her. Her mobile phone is one of the lucky ones; it has encroached into just about every aspect of her life. It accompanies her everywhere, and she characterizes her relationship with the device with words like “love”, “interdependence” and “commitment”. The migration of the majority of women to internet-capable phones — and smart phones in particular — enable greater consumption of the online medium and more features to compete for her limited time. Her usage and attachment serve up new opportunities for brands to engage her through her “always-on” device.

The explosion in the amount of time today’s woman spends online has triggered profound changes in the way she researches and buys products. She is moving outside the purchase funnel and giving rise to new touch points. She transacts online across every category, and entertainment, travel, apparel and beauty are undergoing seismic shifts in consumer behaviour. Marketers must rethink how they influence consumers’ purchasing decisions. Women today are actively “pulling” useful and relevant information, then sharing it with friends and family and perhaps even promoting it on their blog. Marketers must move beyond push-style communication and influence consumers through their preferred destinations and channels, such as recommendations, reviews and online information sites. The shift in consumer decision-making offers fast-moving brands the opportunity to leverage and exploit contemporary women’s new habits, attachments and spheres of influence.

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