1.4 Implications for practitioners

The proposed study will be useful in that gender differences have been of interest to organisations especially to marketers for decades because understanding the different ways that women and men perceived online shopping will facilitate segmentation and individual targeting. If marketers are interested in attracting more women purchasers, the more women can be encouraged to purchase online, the greater likelihood of a significant increase in the profitability from this investment (Rodgers and Harris, 2003; Dholakia and Chiang, 2003). How to attract and retain consumers is critical to the success of online retailers because such knowledge is essential to customer relationship management, which has been recognized as an effective business strategy to increase the success of e-tailing activity (Zhou et al., 2007). Another reason why this study is important is that marketers can tailor their products according to different cultural needs by determining the most favourable methods of marketing their products and services (Pavlou & Chai, 2002). This research is important for marketers and e-tailors because it will enable then to know the factors that help or hinder women or men’s participation in online buying. Understanding these factors will be essential for making marketing decisions such as targeting individual needs (Monsuwe et al., 2004)