How Do Women Shop Differently Online? Insights from Female Daily
Women are as avid online shoppers compared to its male compatriots, but is it any different in Indonesia’s male-dominated tech industry? Hanifa Ambadar, Affi Assegaf, and Novita Imelda (pictured right), three women from Indonesian female community website Female Daily Network are here to help us understand women better, as they shared their insights about their female users.
They have identified that 30 percent of all internet users in Indonesia are female. But in e-commerce, Affi says that women spend more money, which helps make online shopping a very promising market to be in. Hanifa shared more data about the female audience:
52.3 percent of women we surveyed earned between IDR 5 to 20 million per month [$522 to $2,087], 64.6 percent of them own credit cards, and spend about 13.19 percent of their income for retail shopping.
「私達が調査した女性の52.3％が毎月500万〜2000万インドネシアルピア（522〜2,087ドル）の収入を得ています。そのうち64.6％がクレジットカードを保有し、収入の約13.19％を買い物に使っています。」
What do women shop for online? It’s a range of things including various fashion items such as clothing, bags, and make-up, or products for their children. Women aren’t shy to spend some dough to buy these products as some of the imported branded bags that are priced as high as IDR 100 million ($10,400) are still selling like hot cakes on Female Daily.
Women’s Online Shopping Behavior
So how do women decide what to buy online? The survey found that as much as 70 percent of Indonesian women get their fashion inspiration by looking at what their friends’ are wearing, both offline and online. This is especially true for beauty products such as make-up, where women rely more on customer testimonials and recommendations. This is because beauty products are quite sensitive to the different skin types that women have. A lot of women at Female Daily often help others by taking the time to talk and sharing their product experiences at the site’s forum.
それで、女性はオンラインで買うものをどうやって決めているのか？同調査から、インドネシア女性の70％がオフライン／オンラインの両方で友人の着ているものを見てファッションのヒントを得ていることが分かった。これは、化粧品などの美容商品に特に当てはまる。美容商品に関しては、女性は消費者の体験談やお勧めに頼りがちだ。美容商品は女性の肌タイプの違いにかなりデリケートな商品だからだ。Female Dailyの女性の多くは、時間をかけて対話をし、サイトのフォーラムで商品の体験談を共有して、他のユーザーを助けることがよくある。
Interestingly, Hanifa said that the pre-order system is quite popular on its C2C marketplace, MarketPlaza. The system works like Kaskus’ pre-order scheme for gadgets not yet available in the country, whereas the items pre-ordered by the women there are beauty items such as the latest make-up products.
Women and Gadgets
I asked if women find talking about the latest gadgets an interesting topic, and Affi says yes, but from a very different point of view. Men’s main focus on gadgets are its specifications and features, while women focus on its physical looks and relevant features, such as the games for their children. Looking over the Samsung Galaxy Note thread on Female Daily forum, the users’ discussion was indeed focused on how cute the Galaxy Note’s design and pink color is.
Novita tells me that a lot of electronic manufacturers are looking to tap into this female audience, as they are looking to infuse a fashion sense onto their gadgets. They gave an example of how Acer held a runway fashion show where the runway models used the laptops as a fashion item during the recent Clozette Daily launch.
It is not often that I find women tech entrepreneurs in Indonesia. But male-dominated e-commerce startups might want to consider partnering with a few ladies to treat the female audience a little better, since they have the most spending power!
インドネシアで女性がテクノロジー企業を運営しているという話はあまり聞かない。しかし男性中心のeコマーススタートアップは女性客の取り込みのため、女性ともっと協力したいと思っている。何と言っても消費を惜しまないのは女性なのだ！
インドネシアで女性のテック起業家を見る機会はそう多くない。だが男性中心のeコマーススタートアップは、女性のオーディエンスへの対応をいくらかでも工場させるために女性と手を組むことも検討しようとしているかもしれない。購買力をもっているのは女性なのだから！
最初のNovita tells me that a lot of electronic manufacturers are looking toは削除し忘れです。すみません。