Gender and E-Commerce: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The authors consider the role of gender as it relates to e-commerce and offer a conceptual framework that attempts to explain why women are less satisfied than men with the online shopping experience. Perceived emotional benefits are discussed as a primary reason women lack support for e-commerce activity. Additional concepts in our model include trust (i.e., skepticism) and practicality (i.e., convenience). Our survey findings revealed that these three concepts—emotion, trust, and convenience—predicted women's dissatisfaction (and men's satisfaction) with online shopping, as well as men and women's actual shopping behavior. The authors offer ideas to help e-marketers form stronger emotional bonds with female shoppers.