Gender and website design across cultures

Abstract

Previous research has determined that women and men process information differently and have

unique values. These findings are further confirmed in the context of online shopping where women

are known to have diverse preferences from men related to website design, and different sentiments

regarding website trust and security. Yet despite these known differences, relatively there is little

research has examined gender and website design. Further, although online shoppers hail from all

corners of the globe, no research has examined gender differences concerning website design in a

multicultural sample. To fill this gap, the current investigation examined differences between men and

women with a focus on trust, satisfaction, loyalty, and website design in eight countries. Results

demonstrate significant differences between men and women on all variables tested. Further analyses

of four of the countries in the sample (China, Canada, the United States, and Germany) are compared

related to socio-cultural values for masculinity-femininity. As expected, countries more alike on this

dimension exhibited more similarities in terms of gender comparisons. All hypotheses in the study are

supported. Suggestions are made regarding avenues for future research.

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