Make sure you target women. Its true for almost anything you are selling. According to Women Mean Business: The Secret to Selling to Women, eighty percent of all checks written in the US are written by women and they purchase 80-% of all consumer goods in the U.S. Thats not a market segment you can afford to ignore. Even for items traditionally thought of as male dominated, such as consumer electronics, women have significant influence.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) found women actually spent more on technology in 2003 than men, accounting for $55B of the $96B spent on electronics gear. Auto industry research shows that 65% of new vehicle purchases are substantially influenced or directly made by women. A 2005 study by Lucid Marketing found that your business will suffer if your business web site doesnt measure up with women consumers.

How can this help you? Make sure you actively pursue women as customers, even if you dont sell goods or services that you think appeal to women. Make sure your site or facility appeals to women as well as men. Women tend to feel uncomfortable around unhelpful or pushy salespeople. This occurs often in segments such as automotive or consumer electronics, where sales people tend to try to dominate or sell down to women. This could give you an advantage if you sell on the web, where this would not be a concern.

According to the Lucid study, women value the following attributes in an e-commerce website.

Easy navigation
Maximum product selection
Product reviews / recommendations
In-depth product information
Competitive pricing

Make sure your site provides these things.

According to retail statistics, women tend to make purchase decisions based more on lifestyle and aesthetics. Keep this in mind when formulating your product mix and promotional strategy. Women and men both desire flat panel TVs for example, but for different reasons. Men tend to either want to impress their friends or have them because they are cool. Women want a flat panel more because they intrude minimally on a rooms design, space and aesthetics.

Women also tend to be influenced by safety and security more than male customers. Make use of this on your site and in your store.

For all of you that sell in traditionally male dominated segments, explode your sales by making sure you dont neglect women. This strategy will open new horizons to your business and allow you to generate more referrals from satisfied women customers.