How Well do You Know the Next Gen Shopper?

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By Power RetailPublished On: January 15, 20200 Comments

Retailers all over Australia understand the importance of capturing the attention of new shoppers. Two or three years ago, understanding older Millennials was the tough job at hand, but now it seems like a piece of cake. They want a personalised, transparent and content-driven retail experience. But do retailers understand the Next Gen shopper? Power Retail investigates.

The Next Gen shopper, from Millennials and Gen Z, are a tricky target market to crack. Digitally native, they grew u with the birth of online retail, and they understand the process pretty well. Typically aged under 25, they have manufactured their own shopping preferences and expectations that have shaped them to what they are today.

What Makes Next Gen so Different?

The Next Gen shopper may not how to work a rotary phone (or a T9 keyboard for that matter), but they certainly know how to use a smartphone. As previously mentioned, they’re digitally native, meaning they were either born into or was raised in a world with internet and online shopping.

The Importance of Social

It’s no secret that the Next Gen shopper is a big fan of social media. From TikTok to Instagram, there are plenty of apps that the Next Gen shopper loves to use. According to the report, this generation do most of their shopping and browsing in bed (72 percent) or while on social media (60 percent). If your brand isn’t making the most of social media, you may e missing out on a huge market opportunity.

Reviews Matter

Even though they spend 72 percent of their shopping time in bed, the Next Gen shopper isn’t always privy to make an impulse purchase. In fact, they often will check 2.7 online reviews of a product prior to purchasing an item. So, for this generation, reviews matter. Just like the older Millennials, transparency is a major key in creating a reputable and reliable retailer, so be sure that your company includes reviews. Be sure they’re authentic, too. This generation can sniff out a fake review unlike its predecessors.

Conversions are Hard to Come By

Although they spend a lot of time scrolling through retailer apps, mobile sites and online marketplaces, 60 percent of online shoppers under the age of 25 will abandon their shopping cart prior to completing a purchase. As the report finds, in order to make a sale, retailers have to work extra hard to get the Next Gen shopper to make a purchase.

“Slow page load times may be annoying now but Baby Boomers have a reference point for when they were 100 times slower! The Next Gen have no such reference point,” the Power Retail Advisory Board finds. “They reached maturity at the same time as the digital space. Page load times were fast. Delivery was next day. Multi screening across devices was the norm.”

The Power Retail Shopper Profile: Next Gen Shopper provides a deep dive into the mindset behind the Next Gen shopper. In this report, Power Retail addresses key points that identify the NextGen shopper, including shopping behaviour, perceptions of sales events, BNPL, demographics and much more.