A fascinating glimpse into the different mindsets of men and women when shopping for a variety of goods – and reveals that many out-dated stereotypes are still prevalent on the high street. An outline of the results is below as well as more detailed charts.

For instance, an extraordinary 100% of men who replied to the survey admitted they preferred to deal with a male assistant when in an electrical shop, while a similarly overwhelming proportion of female respondents - 99% - said they preferred to be attended to by a woman when in a clothes shop.

And according to the survey, male shopping habits are even influenced by the physical appearance of female assistants. Only 10% of female shoppers expressed any preference over hair colour, but 53% of males did – and all the shoppers who preferred blondes were male.

Even female assistants’ hair length is a factor for men, with 53% expressing a preference – compared to just 14% of women – and factors such as height, build and even eye colour were critical for the majority of men. To see the results in more detail read on.

Gender preferences

Overall, women more often said that they preferred to be served by a female assistant, whilst men showed no overall preference. When looked at in more detail, however, it is clear that the type of shop is more important than the gender of the shopper. Both men and women prefer to be served by female assistants in clothes shops and male assistants in electrical shops.

		Female assistant	Male assistant
Female shopper	Overall	87%	13%
	Clothes shop	99%	1%
	Electrical shop	23%	77%
Male shopper	Overall	50%	50%
	Clothes shop	69%	31%
	Electrical shop	0%	100%
	Travel agent	100%	0%

Appearance and uniform

Male assistants

Few preferences were expressed with regard to the physical appearance of male assistants. Overall 46% preferred a clean shaven assistant (a figure that rises to 63% for female shoppers). No strong preference was expressed by either male or female shoppers with regard to hair colour or eye colour. In terms of build and height, the majority still expressed no preference. When they did express some preference, shoppers opted for "average"—37% in the case of height and 32% for build.

30% didn't mind how old assistants were, 30% favoured one in the range 25-34 and 30% prefer one from 35-44.

Shoppers were much more willing to express a preference over the dress of a male assistant than their personal characteristics. 41% like a formal uniform, 26% prefer a casual uniform such as matching t-shirts and 20% think assistants should be formally dressed, but not in uniform. Only 7% think male store assistants should be casually dressed.

Profile of the ideal male store assistant:

A formally dressed, clean-shaven, man of average build and height between 25 and 44.

Female assistants

Shoppers, particularly male ones, were more willing to express preferences over the personal appearance of female store assistants. When asked about hair length, 86% of female shoppers said they didn't mind. By contrast 53% of male shoppers expressed a preference, with 33% opting for long hair either worn down or tied back. Hair colour showed a similar pattern. Only 10% of female shoppers expressed any preference, while 53% of males did. Interestingly all the shoppers who preferred blondes were male (though not necessarily gentlemen!)

The same trend continued for eye colour (50% males expressed a preference, 9% females), height (77% males expressed a preference, 39% females) and build (90% males expressed a preference, 45% females).

Most shoppers' ideal female store assistant would be 25-34 years old. Again, though, there is considerable variation between male and female shoppers. 30% of men prefer a female assistant 18-24 (only 3% of women agreed) and a further 47% opted for 25-34 (26% of females agreed). 48% of women shoppers said they didn't mind, but only 3% of men were so forgiving.

There was little agreement over how female assistants should dress. Casual uniform (such as matching t-shirts) was most popular with 32% of the vote, whilst a formal uniform, formal dress and casual dress all featured prominently with 15%-17% of the vote.

Profile of the ideal female store assistant for female shoppers:

An average woman between 25 and 44. Most don't really mind.

Profile of the ideal female store assistant for female shoppers:

A young woman matching their personal preferences in terms of build, eye colour and hair! Men really are as shallow as you might have expected.

Dress

We asked shoppers to indicate which specific items of clothing they would expect their ideal store assistant to be wearing. They could choose any number of items. We've listed the items in descending order of popularity. For male assistants this confirms the picture of formal dress, with jeans and t-shirts being seen as unacceptable.

For female assistants a similar pattern emerges, although casual dress is deemed relatively more appropriate than for the male assistants. Perhaps this reflects the type of store in which female assistants are preferred (clothes shops rather than electrical retailers).

Contact

Acceptable behaviours

Shoppers were asked to rate how acceptable a range of different behaviours would be in a store assistant. A smile and greeting were seen as highly acceptable, whilst a hand shake was seen as unacceptable by most. Generally the least "aggressive" behaviours are seen as the most acceptable.

We asked shoppers to define a level of friendliness that would be appropriate for a store assistant. The majority (62%) favoured only a smile and basic politeness (please and thank you), but a significant minority (32%) preferred an assistant who was more "chatty".

Being approached

Shoppers mostly feel that being approached by a store assistant can be good or bad depending on the circumstances, though slightly more dislike than like it.

Most shoppers agree that being approached by assistants is more acceptable in some stores than others.

There is little consensus over how long an assistant should wait before approaching a shopper. Note that nearly a third of shoppers never want to be approached unless they have explicitly asked for help.

Effect of being approached

We asked shoppers what they thought the effect of being approached by an assistant was on them, and what they thought the store aimed to get out of the encounter. They could tick as many options as they felt were applicable to them.

Many shoppers were broadly positive about the effect of being approached by an assistant on their experience in the shop. It is important to note that a sizeable minority of shoppers feel uncomfortable and irritated in this situation—something which supports prior research.

Respondents were reasonably positive about the shop's motives for asking assistants to approach shoppers, though Wants you to buy more as top answer reveals a certain amount of cynicism. Again 24%, a sizeable minority, see such approaches as pressure to buy.

Importance

Male and female shoppers showed a very similar pattern in terms of what attributes where important to them in an assistant. Interestingly women rated all attributes as more important than men. Appearance is considerably less important for all shoppers than other issues, but significantly more important for women than men.