KUALA LUMPUR - Shop till you drop!  It is a familiar theme used by retailers when they are promoting their business and competing with rivals to get a slice of the consumer’s purse.

It’s the women’s purse actually, as they are the ones who dominate the aisles at the shoppingmalls and hypermarkets.

When it comes to spending, they are neither inhibited by variety nor trend. Their consuming power is almost seamless and they shop for almost anything and through all seasons.

Teenagers are frivolous and, like men, may also be free-spending but both are largely style-conscious and selective in the things they buy.

Women – of whom Malaysia has some 13 million – are not so fussy about what they buy although they are quite careful about product quality and functions.

They have, therefore, emerged as a potent force in the market place as they have the decision-making authority and the means to buy whatever they fancy.

Vital force in generating economy

 “Women have always been a vital force in generating the mainstream economy of the nation,” said Mahani Tan Abdullah, the deputy secretary-general of the Domestic Trade, Consumerism and Cooperatives Ministry (pic).

“Whether they are homemakers or corporate leaders, they will have the last say on what the family will have for dinner or where the next family holiday will be,” she added.

According to the Department of Statistics, 49.1% of the country’s population of 27.17 million people, are women and 63.5% (or almost nine million) are between 15 and 64 years.

“The 63.5% is where the buying power is,” Mahani told Malaysian Mirror.

“A woman’s buying power cuts cross race, religion and ethnicity.

“No matter what income group they come from, they are the ones who make decision on the family daily budget,” she said, adding that the ministry is planning education programmes for women to be better and more prudent shoppers.

The programmes will especially aim at mothers, said Mahani, adding: “When mothers are smart consumers, they are able to cultivate effective spending habit of the family.

“They will teach their children to be smart as well in their every day spending.

 “We will then surely but slowly build a nation of conscious consumers, who are well aware of their right as consumers and the thrift in their spending,” she said.

Educating women to be smart consumers

“It is not to say that the men do not care about the family budget. But, usually, they retreat and give the women the upper hand in handling the family’s monetary expenditure,” she said.

“That is why, educating women to be smart consumers is vital, not only for the family, but for the nation as well.

 “This is important because sometimes people can be highly educated, but their spending habits are shocking. These people are drawn to impulse buying since they have the money to spend,” she stressed.

Mahani said  women consumers had been the ones that provided positive feedback on the goods and prices in the market.

“We have been asking women on the price goods all this while. Unlike men, women are more well-informed on the prices of goods that were sold from various shops, supermarket or hypermarket at their area,” she said.

Indeed, women have taken to shopping like they are actually born to do that.

It comes naturally to them and as easy as dining at a restaurant, visiting a beauty parlour, attending social gatherings like weddings and home parties, watching a heartbreaking TV drama and other leisure pursuits.

But do not take it that it is easy to catch the woman consumer. Whether as homemaker or office executive, she is a busy person and has a complex web of duties that one often wonders when she would get the time to shop.

On a typical day, she gets up at 6 am and will immediately get to work on a myriad of household chores, family commitments, office duties and some bit of socializing before retiring to bed at about 11pm.

Women are 'multi-minding'

Forget multitasking – the modern women are "multi-minding," a newly coined buzz phrase that describes the process of simultaneously thinking about various things.

"Women do a lot of homework beforehand and aren't willing to be dazzled by the salesperson who doesn't bring any practical information," says Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Retail and author of How America Shops.

Marketers warn that retailers and manufacturers assume that marketing to women is as easy as changing the color of a product to pink.

"If you're serious about reaching the female consumer, you have to care about her and get to know what she desires," says Michael Silverstein, principal at Boston Consulting Group and author of Trading Up: The New American Luxury.