NEW YORK: American men increased their share of shopping trips made across most retail channels between 2004 and 2012, new research has shown, but women continue to do the bulk of the work.

Nielsen, the measurement company, found that men's share of shopping trips had risen from 25% to 28% in dollar stores, from 26% to 28% in mass merchandisers, from 20% to 31% in supercenters and from 37% to 39% in warehouse clubs.

Only in one retail channel did men account for more than half of trips, and that was to the convenience store or gas station and here too their share had increased, from 54% in 2004 to 57% in 2012.

Men's share of trips to grocery stores was unchanged at 37% while they were less likely than before to go to the drugstore, down from 34% to 32%.

Not only were women more likely to undertake shopping trips but they also spent more money per trip in all channels.

Significant differences in supercenters and grocery stores, where women spent on average $14.31 more per trip and $10.32 more per trip respectively, indicated they continue to be responsible for the weekly shop.

As well as doing most of the shopping, US women are spending more time than men watching video and going online.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, Nielsen found that women over 18 watched an average of 191:34 hours of video each month, up from 184:12 hours in the same period of 2011. Traditional TV accounted for some 94% of that total but mobile and, especially, internet viewing is rising fast among younger women.

Comparable figures for men stood at 174:51 hours and 170:06 hours.

At the end of 2012, there were also 13% more US women than men online, where they accounted for the majority of visitors to career, shopping and social media sites, as well as streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu.

Nielsen concluded that, given women's spending power, it is particularly important for advertising and marketing messaging to resonate with them, with positive messaging an important part of this process.

Data sourced from Nielsen; additional content by Warc staff