men beginning to share the responsibility of shopping in the household. Another
common factor influencing this trend is the increase in number of men being a single
parent and doing the basic shopping duties of the household (Mazumdar and Papatla,
1995). There are several different characteristics between male and f emale shoppers
when it comes to shopping in general. The point that we are going to highlight is the
differences in shopping motives.
There are two main types of shopping motives which are the utilitarian and hedonic
shopping (Babin, Darden and Griffin, 1994). The utilitarian shopping motive
describes the shopping motive whereby a shopper is conscious when the decision is
being made and realized the outcome of the purchase decision. On the other hand
hedonic shopping often involves the emotions and feelings of the shopper. Hedonic
shopping influences the shoppers multiple sensor y and has an indirect impact in
increasing the satisfaction of the shopper (Zhong and Mitchell, 2010). Evidence
suggests that male shopper’s motive would adopt more of utilitarian shopping
behavior and on the other hand female shopper’s motive would involve more of
hedonic shopping behavior (Wolin and Korgaonkar, 2003).
This is due to the fact that female shoppers often view the shopping activity as a fun
and exciting pastime whereas male shoppers view the shopping activity as a
responsibility or task to be completed over a specified period of time (Kruger and
Byker, 2009). This theory is supported by Coley and Burgess (2003) which specified
that female often engage in impulse buying on product categories that appeal to their
emotional and appearance whereas male shoppers often engage in impulse buying on
necessities and functional products.
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