WWW: Where the Web Women Go

ACNielsen eRatings.com’s Research Shows Why
Etailers Need To Keep Pace With Women’s Internet Habits

AUCKLAND, 19 April 2000: Where do women go on the web? To the beauty counter, and that’s big news for etailers looking for e-commerce success.
According to Internet measurement service Nielsen//NetRatings, for the week ending April 2, the top site for female surfers at-home was Lancome.com, the official Lancome Web site providing makeup, fragrance and skincare. Of those Web surfers visiting the site, 92.4 percent were female.

There are a number of reasons that etailers are targeting the ever-increasing number of female Internet shoppers. Nielsen//NetRatings indicates that young women will become the backbone of e-commerce in the years to come, and to capitalise on the growing audience, etailers have to provide products that women buy.

“Beauty sites see dollars in cosmetics online, as cosmetics are light and easy to ship, and women’s cosmetic buying habits tend to suggest brand and store loyalty,” says Kerry Hawkins, Nielsen//NetRatings New Zealand Director of Sales and Marketing.

“In the US, major cosmetic businesses such as Elizabeth Arden and Estee Lauder - which has just announced its online initiative - limit supplies and keep prices high. This often means that e-beauty sites can offer great discounts for lesser known brands, and the bargains attract new shoppers to the site.”

Nielsen//NetRatings has also identified a growth in financial services businesses that market themselves as female-friendly.

US data shows that while men and women access the Internet from home in almost equal numbers now, more males than females are frequent users of financial sites.

“Of the top ten financial services sites accessed from home or work, none are attracting female visitors in equal numbers,” says Hawkins. “Together with the launch of high profile sites such as MsMoney.com, this suggests a previously neglected niche in the market. There’s an unmet opportunity to provide women with tools and services that empower them to take control of their financial lives.”

Plans call for the Nielsen//NetRatings service to measure the activity of more than 90 per cent of the world’s Internet users by the end of 2001. The

Nielsen//NetRatings service is currently established in the U.S. and will soon begin reporting audience information in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Japan, UK, France, and Ireland.

Nielsen//NetRatings tracks the entire spectrum of Internet user behaviour. It combines ACNielsen's global reach and gold standard research methodology with

NetRatings superior technology to deliver Internet usage information and analytical services in context with other media measurement.

ACNielsen eRatings.com is a venture between ACNielsen and NetRatings.

ACNielsen is the global leader in delivering market research, information and analysis to the consumer products and services industries, and NetRatings is the leading provider of Internet audience measurement technology and analysis.

Through the Nielsen//NetRatings service, ACNielsen eRatings.com is creating the first global service for tracking audiences, advertising and user activity on the Internet in more than 30 countries worldwide.

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