Revealed: Why women shop more than men

This article is sponsored by Amazon India.

We’ve all heard the jokes, laughed (or snorted!) at the memes on social media, and cared two hoots for the taunts that come our way. Let’s face it – women shop. A lot. And enjoy the experience.

Offline, online – it doesn’t matter where the shops are. We love browsing, picking out and trying things on. We stare at things that we’re thinking of buying (while men think we’ve gone into a trance from too much window-shopping). And sometimes we’re at the cash counter in the blink of an eye, beloved purchase in hand, because we instantly fell in love with it! Men cite these instances as examples of impulse control issues. And we get labelled shopaholics. Why, the term even inspired a bestselling movie and a nine-book series.

Our boyfriends and husbands and brothers and fathers will vouch for it, even wax eloquent on our shopping addiction behaviour now that smartphones have rescued them from the agony of shopping marathons. It’s an indulgence, they’ll say, for us to buy good-looking stuff, not to mention stuff that makes us look good.

Is that really the sum total of our shopping expeditions, though? Bags and bags (and boxes) of all things nice? Yes, women shop more than men do. Ask yourselves why that is and look beyond the lipstick and lingerie for the answer.