Eight out of ten purchasing decisions are made by women, according to Trendwatching. The future thinking organisation suggests that women are the real buyers in society, so forward thinking businesses are targeting women instead of men.

This suggestion follows hot on the heels of research from the University of Newcastle suggesting that women naturally choose pink. Now, I could go on about the flaws in the research which might make us think that pink is a “natural” female colour, but instead I’ll focus on the suggested evolutionary explanation. Reddish colours could have signalled healthy food to eat, meaning that early cave dwelling women who gathered in fruits and berries would have chosen the right ones. In other words, women played a crucial role in choosing things for the family.

Cavemen may have had all the fun and excitement rushing off after a sabre toothed tiger, but the real work was being done by the women ensuring that the family remained healthy by selecting the right foods to eat. If they’d had to pay for their fruits and berries, it would have been the women making the purchasing decisions.

In other words, in millions of years of evolution, little appears to have changed, if the Trendwatching suggestion is true. Even if your web site is targeting men, the actual purchasing decision could well be made by a woman, backed by all that evolutionary development.

So, if your web site is not female friendly you could well be missing out on all those shoppers.