Gender Commerce. Past development and new technologies in online marketing to influence customers' buying behavior

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,7, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: Gender marketing as a new holistic marketing approach has been intensely discussed over the last couple of years. At the first glance it can surely appear discriminating to differentiate customers by gender, but the genuine intention of gender marketing is to accept and appreciate both genders as they are and develop products according to their gender specific needs. Therefore, it is important to understand that by talking about gender it does not imply talking about fixed roles of males and females in society. Those roles have changed significantly over the last decades and are expected to continue changing over upcoming years. It rather means taking gender specific needs, wishes and characteristics in consideration while developing products and company strategies in order to achieve long-term success and customer loyalty.

But why is this even relevant? Women have been buying products anyway, right? Certainly, women have been buying products without a gender specific approach already. However, the truth is that our markets are saturated and the flood of information customers are confronted with everyday exceeds their cognitive ability. This itself shows the importance of tailoring products as well as communication strategies to customers' needs. Additionally, as mentioned above, social statuses of men and women have been changing continuously. As a result of women's access to higher education, better careers and with that higher incomes independence of women has enhanced over time.

Even if women already have a strong purchasing power, it has not reached its full potential, yet. What also comes along with being independent and earning own money, is making ones own decisions. Women and men differ in their general decision making process and buying behavior. Thinking of women already buying products, which do not perfectly fit their needs, in an environment (either offline or online) they do not feel completely comfortable in, it can lead to an enormous competitive advantage to adjust product and selling strategies to your customers' needs.Transferring this to e-commerce and buying behavior online, there are significant differences between male and female throughout the decision making process that draw companies' attention in order to optimize communication strategies and product development.