Holiday Poll Busts Myth of Male Last-Minute Shopper

20/12/2014
He’s not as iconic as Santa Claus, but still, visions of him dance in our heads every holiday season: The harried husband/boyfriend, desperately scrambling through the mall for last-minute gifts. Men’s magazines offer seasonal guides to help ease his frantic pain, boutiques host “men’s nights” leading up to the holidays to assist in gift selection for that special someone, and headlines proclaim that procrastinating is just something “guys do.”

But according to a new SAP/Ipsos Holiday Gifting Poll on how Americans shop for their significant others, the male last-minute shopper is largely a myth. The poll of more than 3,000 consumers shows that, contrary to stubborn stereotypes, just as many women shop at the last minute, and, overall, procrastinating shoppers make up just a tiny percentage of all holiday gift-getters (4 percent of men vs. 3 percent of women.) In fact, the poll shows that 75 percent of men buy gifts for their significant others during November or the first two weeks in December.
And men actually put a good deal of thought in what to buy, the poll shows. Women are more inclined to take the easy road in gift purchasing—either asking their sweethearts directly what they want (46 percent vs. 40 percent of men) or just taking their best guess (38 percent vs. 33 percent of men). But men are more inclined to do research and seek advice on what to buy—either in-store, online, via friend and relatives or by looking at their loved one’s social-media posts (39 percent of men vs. just 20 percent of women).
39% OF MEN SEEK ADVICE FROM SOCIAL NETWORKS OR ONLINE TO DECIDE WHAT TO BUY THEIR PARTNERS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
As for what that means for retailers? It’s all about engaging men as serious prospective shoppers, answering their questions and generating word of mouth, says Micah Solomon, a Seattle-based customer-experience consultant.
“The best kind of marketing today is either from other customers, or it’s when those men seek advice and have a great experience doing that,” says Solomon, author of “Your Customer Is The Star: How To Make Millennials, Boomers And Everyone Else Love Your Business.”
“When someone is thinking about ordering a special gift for their special person, if those noncustomers had a good experience when asking advice, potentially that could be good marketing,” Solomon says. “Every interaction is actually an opportunity to be generating word of mouth.”
The SAP Holiday Gifting poll results may also help dissuade salespeople and marketers from ignoring clientele based on “gut” prejudices, says Solomon. “What happens is a man walks in a store, has a backward-facing baseball cap or whatever, and we treat that person poorly because of how they look,” he says, noting that ready-to-spend customers wear sweatpants, too.
The poll also questioned consumers about what kinds of gifts they buy for their significant others, how much they spend and how they feel about the gift-purchasing process. Interesting findings include:
A surprisingly high 12 percent—of both genders—buy toys and games for their sweethearts. A high percentage of buyers (21 percent) from the 18-34 age group drove up this toy-and-game purchase figure.
On the spending front, women spend less on their love interests than men. Thirty-seven percent spend under $100, while just 29 percent of men spend that amount. On the top end of the gift spectrum, 8 percent of men said they will spend $1,000 or more on their significant others, while just 2 percent of women planned to spend that much.
While a significant number—15 percent—of all respondents buy on Black Friday/Cyber Monday for their sweethearts, the vast majority do not endure “doorbuster” sales (or their Web equivalent) on behalf of loved ones. Those doorbusters are also more likely to be younger—18 percent of those 18-34 years old vs. 10 percent of those ages 55 and older.
And finally, while men have more negative emotions like stress, annoyance anddread about holiday shopping than women (32 percent vs. 26 percent), three-quarters of all men and women felt positive emotions, like love, generosity andjoy. So while it seems the male last-minute shoppers are just ghosts of stereotypes past, the holiday spirit behind gifts for those you love is very much real, and present.
This story was originally posted on The Customer Edge, a webzine for Sales, Marketing, and Commerce leaders. Check out our LIVE Holiday Social Sentiment Analytics Dashboard to see what gifts shoppers are talking about in social media!
These are findings from an SAP/Ipsos Poll conducted December 4-10, 2014. For the survey, a sample of 3,016 Americans, ages 18+ were interviewed online. The precision of the online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.0 percentage points for all adults.

Fonte:http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2014/12/20/holiday-poll-busts-myth-of-male-last-minute-shopper/

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