Women and Men Now Grocery Shop Equally: Study

Although tradition has led many to assume women grocery shop more than men, the reality is that both genders are pretty much equal in the practice, according to the latest Grocery Shopper Impact MegaStudy from VideoMining, a State College, Pa.-based provider of in-store behavior analytics solutions.

Among grocery shoppers, women account for 51 percent, narrowing the gender gap. But even though more men are shopping, they're still not spending as much as women: On average, female grocery shoppers spend $2.73 more per trip.

The study also found that:

• More people are avoiding center store and shopping just the perimeter. While data from 2012 showed 12 percent of shoppers limiting themselves to perimeter departments, the number has grown to 20 percent, meaning one in five shoppers avoid center store altogether.
• Most trips are relatively small – with 68 percent made for 10 items or fewer – which suggests manufacturers have a limited opportunity to make it into the basket during most shopping trips. Taking into account small trips, perimeter-only shoppers and changing shopper demographics, brands must now be increasingly precise in targeting marketing messages and merchandising solutions to reach and convert these harder-to-reach shoppers.

The GSI MegaStudy is powered by VideoMining's Shopper Impact Platform, which incorporates its OmniSensR Internet-of-things sensing devices with patented AI and machine-learning technologies to anonymously track detailed in-store behavior and apply prescriptive analytics for a variety of applications. Using a nation-wide panel of representative stores across multiple retailers, the MegaStudy provides channel-wide perspective benchmarking across geographic and demographic clusters.