GENDER COMPARISON IN ONLINE SHOPPING IN TERMS OF PRODUCT CLASSIFICATION AND SHOPPING MOTIVATIONS

Abstract

This study had two aims. The first was to determine whether the products purchased on-line by the consumers were in hedonic or utilitarian product category and whether these categories were related to gender or not, while the second aim was to determine the hedonic and utilitarian factors that drive consumers to online shopping, and whether these factors were related to gender or not. The study had several subsidiary aims such as defining the place of online shopping among the internet usage aims, describing the advantages of online shopping and most common problems of internet shopping in terms of gender. In this context, the universe of this positivist study comprised 18 year and older online shoppers. 481 consumers accepted to join the study on a voluntary basis with convenient sampling method and constituted the study sample. Study data was collected from the participants through online surveys. Findings showed that hedonic and utilitarian product preferences and shopping motivations were related to gender.