E-Content Merges with E-Commerce: Or, Why One-Third of Women Check Facebook in the Morning Before Going to the Bathroom

I had the good fortune of being involved in a pretty fascinating, tech-industry panel discussion and social event Thursday night in San Francisco. The topic? How women are driving the next generation of e-commerce, online-gaming and social-gaming activity, and how online businesses can profit from the trend.

My most interesting takeaway: How the lines between content and commerce are increasingly blurring across the Internet, in verticals ranging from media to shopping. The CEOs of startups such as BeachMint, a new online-shopping company that uses celebrities and storytelling to help market products like jewelry, and Zulily, a daily-deals site focusing on kids’ clothing, talked at length about how they “curate” their online shopping experiences to appeal to women. These companies don’t expect customers to just open up a browser to look at a pair of earrings, or a cute baby dress, and then press “purchase”. Beachmint’s staff spends a lot of time writing up descriptions of the company’s products, describing the inspirations for, and origins of, each piece; similarly, Zulily’s Darrell Cavens said his company employs a staff of 25 writers. (Similar, I guess, to Groupon’s strategy of focusing on well-written deal descriptions, as described in this New York Times story.) Fran Hauser, president of digital for Time Inc.’s Style & Entertainment and Lifestyle groups, said her publishing company’s editors are curating content as well, and that women rely on a triad of friends, tastemakers and experts to help them make buying decisions online.

There was also plenty of discussion about how women shop and behave online differently than men. They apparently respond to advertising better: According to Trinity Ventures Partner Patricia Nakache, who organized and hosted the event, 45% of women said in one recent survey that they “sometimes” engage with online ads, versus just 24% of men. (Separately, Nakache had the best statistic of the night—that about one-third of women aged 18 to 34 check Facebook in the morning before they go to the bathroom.)

Facebook executive Katie Mitic, who was also on the panel, talked a lot about how women are more naturally communicative online, just as they are offline. That explains why women comprise just 40% of Facebook users but make 60% of the comments and posts, she said (which was news to me). And even though Google is trying to encroach on Facebook’s turf with its new Google + initiative, Mitic and Google’s Stephanie Tilenius, also on the panel, refrained from any trash-talking. (I get the feeling they may actually be friends.)

But women’s brisk use of social networks has big monetary implications, according to Nakache. It means that traditional, word-of-mouth marketing can be tremendously amplified: With a social network, you can tell hundreds of people about your latest shoe purchase, or mini-accomplishment in some social game, instead of just the one or two friends you met in person today for coffee. And that all creates a sort of virtuous economic circle. Women buy more things online and play more games on the Web these days. And when they talk about all this on social networks, they see more advertising and other incentives to shop more and play more games. Ka-ching, for the companies smart enough to capitalize on this. (Nakache expounded on some of these things last year in a smart op-ed for Forbes, my former employer.)

And finally, speaking of former employers: My former Wall Street Journal colleague Geoff Fowler did a great job moderating the discussion, throwing in references to “Man Jose”, the biggest, engineering-centric city in Silicon Valley, and even a “Funny or Die” satire video poking fun at potential online privacy incursions. The video, called “GMale”, is about the perfect boyfriend—a guy who listens to you intently, picking up “key words”, and anticipates things like your mom’s birthday and an upcoming baby shower. Says a faux Google spokeswoman at the end of the short video: “How can we give you everything you need, if we don’t listen to everything you say?”

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