The differences between the male gender and the female gender in the purchase intention of cosmetic products

Abstract

The male gender participation in the cosmetic industry has grown significantly in the recent years. This tendency can be attributed to a shift on the gender social norms attributed to men and woman that has led to an increasing concern for the physical appearance from the male gender. Consequently, due to this increase of interest of the male gender in the purchase of cosmetic products it is important to study more about this emerging segment. Since the Online channel provides more privacy to the consumer when on the act of purchasing because it can be done with no interaction with other people, it would be expected for the male gender to prefer to engage in the purchase of stereotypical products of the female gender online instead of in-store. The literature, as it is further developed during this thesis, supports this claim, however the results obtained show that this might not be the case. It would also be expected that individuals of the female gender would be more likely to purchase cosmetic products in-store since the literature supports that this gender seems to be more concerned with factors such as websites keeping their costumer profile, compared to man. The data proves that this is the case however not for all the products studied.

Date of Award	11 May 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Niza Braga (Supervisor)