Why don’t more women show interest in crypto-shopping?

Women’s interest in crypto-shopping didn’t increase during the first three quarters of 2021. According to the Cryptorefills Consumer Report 2021, in the year 2020, females’ share among all crypto-shoppers was only 8.8%. This rate was recorded as 8.5% in the first nine months of 2021. We also note that no crypto-shopper has responded with a non-binary gender. This disequilibrium is very interesting considering that women’s interest in more traditional ways of online shopping (incl. online stores and marketplaces like Amazon) is very high and even higher than that of men. The gender gap is not exclusively limited to crypto-shopping activities. Recent research found that women’s interest in any kind of crypto-asset is roughly half of men’s (source: CNBC).

Share of male and female crypto-shoppers.

Although we have discovered a little positive correlation between Bitcoin prices (or crypto-prices in general) and women’s share among new crypto-shoppers, it was not possible to name the reasons behind their preferences. From another angle, this lack of participation indicates a great business opportunity. What you read about crypto-shopping, including demand and trade volumes, is only half of the story. Whoever can convince more women to spend their crypto will be shaping the market.

Businesses who accept crypto must target reaching out to more women not only because they have the potential to spend more, but more importantly, they spend periodically. As much as 16.7% of women purchase goods and services with crypto almost every day. That is not higher than the figure for men, but this is still early. Nevertheless, 38.9% of female crypto-shoppers buy stuff with crypto on a weekly basis, which is really a lot, and even more than men. Another 27.8% is doing crypto-shopping monthly or so.

Female crypto-shoppers – including first-timers – were also asked what is holding them back from spending crypto on the stuff they usually buy online via traditional payment systems (credit card etc.). 45% of female crypto-shoppers agree that there are not enough stores offering products and services that can be bought with crypto. Other reasons for not making purchases with crypto include – not so surprisingly – high transaction fees and crypto investments with a long-term expectation of price increase in their crypto-assets. Please note that this research included participants who were already introduced to crypto-shopping. Those who stay away from crypto altogether were out of scope, so that part of the picture is still missing.

Female crypto-shoppers’ agreement that there are not enough stores accepting crypto.

Stay crypto-tuned.