Women: Engineers of our Economy!

One of our favorite trade newsletters is called GiftBeat.  The June issue had some interesting articles....thought I'd pass along a bit of information to you.
Did you know that women account for 70% to 80% of consumer product purchases?  Women, as the article says, are the "gatekeepers" to every kind of customer.
What this data really means is that women control a bunch of money.  Women's income has grown nearly 30% since 1990...although we know that very often women's paychecks are smaller than men's paychecks who are performing the same jobs.
I guess where women get some of their "power" is that men actually shop less...the power of shopping means a great deal in our economy.
The article I am referring to also says that people are having fewer children....an average American family has 2 kids.  But those kids are getting products and experiences faster than ever.  With less kids, I suppose many families have more money to spend on each one.
I remember sharing a bedroom with my sister.  We had 2 twin beds, a dresser, 2 closets and one desk and chair.  Fortunately my sister was 5 years younger than me, so when I needed the desk, for example, to do homework, my sister hadn't reached the stage of having a lot of homework.  Nonetheless, our room wasn't very big.  I don't remember us spending too much time together in the bedroom....except to sleep, of course.
With 3 kids and an average household income (my Mom didn't work outside the home) we didn't do a lot of shopping.

Our society is also aging...a good thing because people are living longer....unfortunately for men, more women live longer than men do.  That situation leaves more assets in older women's hands. These statistics seem to say that throughout a woman's life, she controls more of the money spent, except perhaps for major purchases like homes and cars.
Younger women are not waiting until marriage or settling down to purchase products for their homes.  If they have more disposable income, younger women are buying those nicer items which, in the past, they often listed on a wedding registry.
For us retailers, these statistics are meaningful.  They help to shape our plans for the store, our purchases of merchandise and our advertising expenditures.  The GiftBeat article tells us that if we meet the higher expectations which women have for the sales experience, we will also be meeting the expectations which men shoppers have.
When we bought our store 21 years ago, I never realized that there is a bit of a science to owning a retail store.  In addition, I think that consumers are more sophistocated and educated than they were in the past.  It is important to the success of a retail store that research, serious thought and planning and constantly recognizing what customers expect be applied to every buy for the store.  With the Gift Market coming up in a few days, we have a lot of preparation in front of us.
Stay tuned.