Girl Power: Statistics Show Just How Powerful The Female Consumer Market Is

By: Multi-Unit Franchisee
Published: August 8th, 2012

In case you haven’t noticed, women possess a lot of buying power. Surveys have long told us that women are gatekeepers who make many, if not most, of the financial decisions in the home. Statistics reveal that over the next decade, women will control two thirds of consumer wealth in the United States and be the beneficiaries of the largest transference of wealth in our country’s history. Estimates say that amount could range from $12 to $40 trillion. Many Boomer women will experience a double inheritance windfall, from both parents and spouse.

Once the college bills are out of the way and children launch their own households, the discretionary spending power of 50-plus women soars. Research shows they spend 2.5 times what the average person spends. Women are the primary buyers for computers, cars, banking, financial services, and a lot of other big-ticket categories.

With all this in mind, here are some additional ‘female facts’ that shed more light on just how powerful women are in today’s marketplace. It’s important for franchise brands – and franchisees - to reach out and connect with this customer base.

Women account for 85 percent of all consumer purchases including everything from autos to health care:

• 91% of New Homes
• 66% PCs
• 92% Vacations
• 80% Healthcare
• 65% New Cars
• 89% Bank Accounts
• 93% Food
• 93% OTC Pharmaceuticals - American women spend about $5 trillion annually; over half the U.S. GDP (source: She-conomy.com)

• Women purchase over 50 percent of traditional male products, including automobiles, home improvement products, and consumer electronics. (source: girlpowermarketing.com)
•  In the U.S., 75 million moms make or influence 85 percent of all household purchase decisions, representing $2.1 trillion in annual spending power. (source: girlpowermarketing.com)
• 91% of women in one survey said that advertisers don't understand them (source: She-conomy.com )
• Boomer Women and Affluence – One huge, affluent segment wields more spending clout than any other: Baby-Boomer women. Born between 1946 and 1964, these women represent a portion of the buying public no marketer can afford to ignore. With successful careers, investments made during the “boom” years, and inheritances from parents or husbands, they are more financially empowered than any previous generation of women. (source: Mary Brown, Carol Orsborn, Ph.D., Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer—The Baby-Boomer Woman)
• Senior women age 50 and older control net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation’s financial wealth. (source: MassMutual Financial Group–2007)
• The Boomer woman is a consumer that luxury brands want to resonate with. (source: Claire Behar, Senior Partner and Director, New Business Development, Fleishman-Hillard New York)
• Fifty-plus American women are the healthiest, wealthiest, and most active generation of women in history. (source: Demographics by Mark Miller)
• Of the 743 women of wealth interviewed with at least $3 million in investable assets, 61.2 percent accumulated their fortunes through corporate employment, their own, or a family business or a professional practice. Only 38.8 percent of the women had married into or inherited their money. (source: Women of Wealth, 2004, by Russ Alan Prince and Hannah Shaw Grove)
• Senior women age 50 and older control net worth of $19 trillion (source: MassMutual Financial Group-2007)

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