Online shopping: Women losing their way

Buying on the Internet has got harder
Only 1 in 10 online shoppers acknowledges service improvements

Women find their way around Internet shops less successfully than men.

Men make better progress through the shopping mazes on the Internet  
The Internet marketplace has grown into a mammoth shopping labyrinth. More and more products and services can be had at the click of a mouse. Many consumers feel overwhelmed by this. Only every fourth consumer finds the right products at once. Women get lost in these online shops more frequently than men. While almost a third of men find Internet shopping has become more clearly structured, only a quarter of women share this view. These are the results of the study of "E-Shopping Trends 2006", by novomind in cooperation with wiwo.de and handelsblatt.com. 
  
Women complain of poor service and difficulties in use  
Internet shopping is often too complicated for female online customers. Only every third woman says that shopping on the net has become simpler than before. 15% of female customers are irritated by over-complex payment procedures - a criterion that is decisive in the choice of shop for two thirds of the female Internet shoppers. In addition, they find service deficiencies with the online traders. 45% of women are not satisfied with the online advice. Only 6% of the women agree that customer service has improved on the Internet. 
 
Men and women want more advice when shopping online  
Conversely, men find online shopping easier: Around half feel that purchasing in virtual shops has become easier than before. Concerning advice, however, men are more critical than women. More than half of them would like more product information. However, 12% of male Internet customers - twice as many as of the women - concede that Internet shops now offer more service than in the past. 
  
Background information  
The current study of "E-Shopping Trends 2006" was undertaken in June 2006 by novomind in cooperation with wiwo.de and handelsblatt.com. The investigation focussed on locating the current trends in e-shopping and virtual marketplaces. 506 end customers took part in the online survey. 
  
novomind: innovative software for professional customer communications  
novomind is a software developer in Hamburg and the fastest-growing company in the field of electronic customer communications and mail management. As the leading provider of innovative solutions for digital customer communications, novomind AG provides software for service-oriented and personalised customer dealings. The software not only optimises efficiency in customer administration significantly, it also gives the user a faster return on investment. The portfolio of the Products division includes the novomind Self Service Suite™. The software package contains all the communication modules necessary for a customer service centre on a central knowledge basis: e-mail management, virtual customer consulting and systems for interactive, real-time communication. The novomind AG Services division implements complex e-business applications. More than 40 major companies have already decided in favour of novomind technology, among them Citibank, Otto, Yello Strom and the German pension institution Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund. Club Bertelsmann, EnBW and Mexx as well as public-sector users, such as the German Bundestag (parliament) and the German Department of Trade and Industry, have already successfully introduced novomind systems to optimise their customer communications, turnover and PR. 

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