Next year is anticipated to be the inflection point, when millennial spending overtakes Boomer and Gen X shoppers with a whopping $200 billion in buying power.
With all the doom and gloom surrounding retail, many mistakenly assume younger generations do not shop brick and mortar. This assumption is woefully incorrect. Millennials are open to any and all shopping experiences but demand an elevated in-store experience, and they also expect a high level of convenience. Euclid surveyed 1,500 US consumers about their shopping habits to better understand just what it will take for retailers to meet the high expectations of modern shoppers.
“This is sink-or-swim time for physical retailers,” said Brent Franson, CEO of Euclid. “Over-marketing is a huge turn-off to most consumers. New buying models are winning over millennials and others who value modern shopping channels. And shoppers wat from physical stores what they get from Amazon: a frictionless buying experience. The question is, will brick and mortar retailers deliver? They’re certainly positioned to do that, if they shape the store experience to align with consumers’ high expectations for convenience.”
Three Top Trends:
- New buying models (e.g., subscription boxes) are shifting how people think about stores.
- The Millennial generation is turned off by traditional marketing methods.
- Growing channel agnosticism—an openness to regularly using multiple channels—means there’s “room for everyone.”
Just The Numbers:
- Millennials shop in shareable, Instagrammable, immersive experiences and want get-in-get-out convenience.
- The millennial cohort also cares less about pricing and more about a curated experience. When they visit a store they want interaction with employees.
- 26% are likely to enjoy interacting with an employee and 11% say the sales associate is a big part of their purchasing decision, compared with 20% of Boomers and Gen Xers who enjoy this interaction, and only 5% say it impacts purchasing decisions.
- 66% of millennials are likely to visit a pop-up location this year.
- A quarter of millennials (more than the 20% of Baby Boomers and 19% of Gen Xers) like to shop with family and friends.
- 47% buy online and pick up in-store more than 40% of the time, compared to 30% of Gen Xers and just 14% of their Baby Boomer parents.
- They switch seamlessly between buying online (52%) and in physical stores (59%) weekly, with nearly a third holding retail subscription services.
- Motivating millennials through advertising is challenging. Less then a third are inspired by product ads, compared to 53% of Boomers and 40% of Generation Xers.
- Half of survey respondents of all generations unsubscribe when they get too many emails from brands. Just 44% of millennials bother (far less than the 55% percent of Boomers and 51% of Gen Xers). Brands beware—the insight here is that many millennials getting marketing emails neither pay attention to them, nor think more highly of the brand sending them.
Download Euclid’s full report “The Store of the Past Meets the Shopper of the Future: Can Retailers Adapt to Modern Consumer Expectations?”
Photo: Heidi Sandstrom via Unsplash
