blog.wholesalecentral.com recently covered a story on the influx of females, and more specifically mothers, shopping online. Further supported by an eMarketer report, moms used online shopping because of its convenience during busy schedules, in which, “A full 90.3 percent of women with children under 18 access the Internet at least once a month, compared to 76.3 percent of all adult females.” Besides the impressive number of moms accessing the Internet to get a little mandatory and self indulgent shopping in between naps and feedings, you may be wondering what in general attracts moms to add to their digital shopping carts.
A survey of more than 1,900 mothers across the U.S., conducted by BSM Media and Totsy.com, a private sales site for moms, was created to research the shopping trends of mothers affected by the recent recession. The study revealed that, “Almost 80 percent of respondents note the recession permanently altered their shopping habits, inducing overall cuts in spending.” In simpler terms, moms have become frugalistas.
You may ask, is there anything else driving these frugalistas to the purchases they make? As revealed by this first annual Mom Shopping Trends Report, “Almost 94 percent of moms admit to buying ‘feel good’ purchases for themselves at least a few times a year, with the most popular item being clothing, followed by sweet treats and accessories.” With busy schedules, demanding responsibilities and stressful deadlines, most anyone can agree you buy what you must, but the real indulgence comes from those purchases that fulfill wants over needs. This is true for all shoppers worldwide, as exemplified by a recent report written in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
Dr. Yu-Hung Chang of National Health Research Institutes released the results after studying the effects of frequent shopping in men and women. Dr. Chang’s conclusion, “Shopping behavior favorably predicts survival. Shopping captures several dimensions of personal well being, health and security, as well as contributing to the community’s cohesiveness and economy, and may represent or actually confer increased longevity.” The only hard reality our influx of mommy shoppers have to face is that Dr. Chang believes frequent shopping may favor men more than women. Then again, how can they go wrong? Either way, they’ll feel good about their purchases or potentially live a longer life.