SHOPPER INSIGHTS
MILLENNIAL SHOPPING HABITS:
ARE THEY REALLY THAT DIFFERENT? IN THE NATIONAL LIQUOR NEWS ANNUAL INDUSTRY LEADERS FORUM ONE OF THE HOT TOPICS WAS HOW TO CAPTURE THE MILLENNIAL SHOPPER, SO FOR THIS MONTH’S SHOPPER INSIGHTS ARTICLE NORRELLE GOLDRING HAS TAKEN A LOOK AT THE SHOPPING HABITS OF MILLENNIALS.
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e’ve been hearing increasing amounts about millennials, aka ‘Gen Y’ or those born between 1980 and 2000. The latter ones are also known as ‘digital natives’. But are their shopping habits really different from the generations preceding them (X, boomer, ‘silent generation’)? In short, it’s the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ that are similar to other generations, but it’s the ‘how much’ that differs. Generally, the younger they are, the more smartphone-based they are likely to be, while tablets are increasingly for the Gen Xers and boomers (i.e. those over 40). Likewise, the younger the shopper, the more likely they are to use mobile payments. Gen Zs are using mobile payments more (for the limited categories they buy, given their young age) than are the Gen Ys. For shopping packaged food and beverage online, Gen Ys are more likely to use laptops for shopping than are Gen Zs or Xers. Gen Xers are more likely than Ys and Zs to use desktop computers and tablets for online shopping. Gen Ys and Zs prefer the smartphone. This means your website (and you must have one… for Gen Y and Gen Z, if you’re not online you don’t exist) must be optimised for mobile. The top uses of mobile devices are for
logistically-based searches – what is it, where is it, how much it is, is it in stock, what do others say about it. This doesn’t change much by generation, with the exception of the recommendations, which becomes more important the younger the shopping generation. Likewise the various uses of social media for shopping, and their levels of use, don’t differ much by generation. When it comes to shopping for packaged food and beverage, the younger they are the more likely they are to shop ‘omnichannel’ (across online and offline channels) and the less likely to shop only in a physical store. However, even for Gen Zs fewer than five per cent have done all of their packaged food and beverage shopping exclusively online in the past six months. Ninety-two per cent of Gen Ys and Gen Zs (and 95 per cent of Xers) bought packaged food and beverage in a physical store. So the physical store isn’t going away, but it’s about tangibility and increasingly about experience. In western countries there is a shift into experiences, rather than acquisitions of things and this is especially true for Gens Y and Z, for whom experiences are more important than things. This has implications for things like competitions and prizes – which generally appeal to a minority anyway – where the prize of an experience is more likely to be appealing
than is winning a ‘thing’. While the physical store is still very important to them, the Gen Y and Gen Z expectations of receiving personalised offers and service is higher than those for Gen X and the boomers. In terms of retail execution, the same rules apply for Gen Y as for other generations, and good retailing in general: • Ensure your mobile optimisation includes the most performed searches and tasks – and include payments. • Reduce customers’ need to ‘run around’ by optimising mobile search. • Tailor offers and service to individuals’ needs… personalisation is the name of the game. • Harness positive word of mouth – create offers around customer advocacy programs, publish and leverage reviews. Encourage sharing. • Leverage third party reviews and product information. • Make online search and transaction in one tap, one touch, one click, one screen. Particularly for mobile. • Make use of visual search shopping platforms: for instance, if they order a bottle of wine in a restaurant and take a photo of it to remember what it was, it should redirect to your store to buy it. • Make in-store more experiential and curated.
ABOUT NORRELLE GOLDRING Norrelle Goldring helps improve shopping experiences by understanding how and why people buy things. She has 20 years’ experience in shopper and retail research and marketing across manufacturer, retailer and agency roles with companies ranging from Diageo to Coca-Cola to Vodafone stores. Most recently she was Shopper Lead APAC at global consumer and retail research house GfK. Call Norrelle on 0411735190 or email norrellegoldring@hotmail.com.
24 | MARCH 2015 2018 NATIONAL LIQUOR NEWS