It’s a Woman’s Retail World According to One Expert

Retail guru Paco Underhill cares about what women want so much so that he wrote an entire book on the topic. What Women Want: The Global Marketplace Turns Female Friendly tells a story of how smart businesses are changing to fit the needs of women, a growing group that often already makes up more than half of their customers.

In an interview and a book excerpt posted on NPR, Underhill reveals that five years ago, young women under the age of thirty over took men in earning power for the first time in history. Underhill writes, “In the United States, the chances of being twenty-five years old and gainfully employed are higher if you’re a female than a male. These odds go up even further if we don’t consider immigrant, African-American, and Latino populations. Economic hard times favor females, too. During the recent recession, 82 percent of job losses befell men, who tend to be disproportionately represented in industries like construction and manufacturing. Historically, women are apt to work in fields such as education and health care, which are more resistant to economic swings.”

More money means more power, independence and wealth to spread. Retailers better take notice, and Underhill points out that some of them already have.

Using examples from the hospitality industry, Underhill explains how hotels have tweaked their shower curtains to appeal to a woman’s higher standards in personal hygiene and modified their check-in process to increase a woman’s feelings of security.

When trying to increase a female customer base, retailers should not only concentrate on what products and services they sell, they should also place importance on how they’re doing the selling.