Is it true that Web users are mostly techno-geeks—young male introverts that listen to podcasts while instant messaging about topics like the next big virus hoax? According to one commentator, this stereotypical image of the average Internet user has been redundant for many years. Women are just as likely as men to use the Web for entertainment, retail therapy, or as an information resource. It's time e-tailers sit up and take note of it.

In the Web's early days, female-specific websites like iVillage went out of their way to attract women in a male-only preserve. The more typical approach nowadays is to be all-inclusive. Yet few would dispute that women have a different set of priorities and behave differently when shopping. Creating a shopping experience that engages women is just as important for e-commerce companies as it is for brick-and-mortar stores. Furthermore, since women wield enormous buying power in today's society, giving women a bad Web experience is bad business.

People love to shop, and a growing body of research suggests that shopping activates key areas of the brain, boosting one's mood. The challenge for Net businesses today is to capture the excitement of shopping and take it to the Web. Online merchants should do more to take advantage of the "shopper's high" and capitalize on differences between men and women shoppers—overlooking their unique needs and consumer behaviors could be a costly mistake.