By Aimee Chanthadavong

A couple walks into an appliance store…

No, this isn’t the start of a bad joke, but rather an exercise to show how stereotypes can form and then change over time, and how retailers that don’t adapt can lose sales.

There was a time when the stereotype dictated when a couple walked into an appliance store, the man earning the big money made all the big calls. It follows the classic story of the husband and wife at the caryard: the salesperson spends the whole talking to the man, never once realising that it is the woman buying the car.

Now that stereotype has flipped: the conflation of research, marketing and the media has led everyone to believe it is the woman making the decision and, as such, it has become common to tailor the sales pitch to that premise.

Take a look at the stats, however, and you’ll see that both stereotypes are inaccurate. The truth is, more and more, buying cooking appliances is a joint decision. It is true that women are twice as likely as men to drive the decision, but a joint decision is twice as common as that.

Research from BIS Shrapnel shows that if a couple comes into a retail store to buy cooking appliances, nearly half (45 per cent) will make a joint decision on the brand. Around one-quarter of the time, it’s the woman making the primary decision, while in only 11 per cent of couples will the man drive the purchase decision.

The really interesting bit is in the trends over the past five years. In 2008, the female member of a couple was making 42 per cent of decisions — that has since declined by almost 40 per cent. Over the same period, joint decision making has grown from 36 per cent to 45 per cent.

Applied Retail Training principal Bob Johnson is an expert in training frontline sales staff and an ex-retailer. He has a simple tip to all counter staff:

“Don’t stereotype!” he said.

“It is easy to settle into a mindset, to think men and women have certain roles, but now that line is blurred so we can’t just assume — Australians have magnificent bullshit radars.”

Modern appliance retailers must be flexible, Johnson said, and able to pivot from different techniques to close both members of a couple.

“Women are more logical than men,” Johnson said. “Women look at products more for their functionality, usability and durability.

“So as a salesperson, you have to ask the questions about their home, the space of their kitchen and why they are buying new cooking appliances to help guide the customer in the right direction.”

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Smeg national marketing manager Jim Kalotheos said stereotyping is gradually being consigned to the past as the conversation to sell cooking appliances changes.

“One of the challenges we face is that cooking appliance sales, especially in the premium category, are influenced by more factors than simply price and budget. While this can be important, premium customers are passionate cooks,” he said.

“So the conversation should start with questions like ‘what food do you love?’, ‘how many people will you be cooking for?’ and ‘what restaurants do you go to?’ That can help qualify what cooking appliance people should have in their home.”

Kalotheos also said while men have been known to be more interested in the specs, they too are now concerned about the looks of their cooking appliances.

“A lot more men are doing a lot more cooking, watching more food shows and slowly getting more involved,” he said.

“I think guys secretly want their kitchen to make a statement so that when their mates are over they can show it off.”

To that end, Smeg is releasing a designer outdoor kitchen — also known as a barbecue — that is “drawing a lot of attention from the blokes because alfresco dining is now seen an extension of the kitchen and that’s getting guys more involved.”

John Pysing from Rawsons Elite Appliances in South Australia hasn’t experienced this trend first hand — he said 80 per cent of his customers were women — but he still likes to stay on the safe side.

“The way we sell to ladies is the way we sell to men,” he said. “We have a lot of premium appliances. Our clients are aware of this and are now coming into store with more knowledge so as salespeople we need to have high product knowledge as well so we can speak on a more technical level with them.”

Rob Godwin, owner of Godwins Betta Home Living of Salamandar Bay in New South Wales, said it was important to disregard stereotypes as couples now shop as “single unit” and it’s key to make everyone feel comfortable shopping in the store.