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If you can do so without freaking her out, look at the nearest female.  Is she dripping with electronics gear?  New rumors indicate that women are buying more of the stuff, and may actually be buying more than men.

This would mean a lot to online retailers - whether they chose to redecorate their sites in pink or made more subtle (and less offensive) changes, male shoppers are probably what they expected and planned for.  So, with Hitwise’s Robin Goad as our guide, let’s get into the data.

In 2007, he found that men outnumbered women roughly 53 to 47 in visits to the “Shopping and Classifieds - Appliances and Electronics category.”  Goad then adds, “[T]he representation of female visitors to the category against the online population as a whole decreased last year.”

So should we give up on the idea of women as the dominant electronics buyers?  Well, no.  “Women accounted for 54.6% of visitors to our Shopping and Classifieds - Department Stores category during the same period . . . ” Goad continues.  “And online department stores are certainly selling electrical goods . . . . So maybe the answer is that women prefer to purchase their electricals at department stores and high street chains, whereas men prefer the more specialist shops.”

None of this gets into why women (and men) are buying electronics, of course - there may be a mass swap on Christmas day that messes everything up.  Still, it looks like online electronics retailers might want to rethink any male-oriented strategies they’ve been using.