Millennials may be attuned to the world of e-commerce, but they have not turned their backs on brick-and-mortar retailing.
A recent survey of consumers by First Insight found that 71% of Millennials are visiting multiple stores to find the best deals on products. By comparison, only 57% of Baby Boomers are walking into more than one store to find a good deal.
But Millennials are not shunning technology as part of their shopping experience as 82% are going online to search for deals, while 65% of Baby Boomers are shopping digitally to find the lowest price.
“The retail industry has been operating on the outdated assumption that Boomers are shopping for deals primarily in-store and Millennials are searching for deals mostly online,” said Greg Petro, CEO and founder of First Insight. “The behavior between these generations is evolving, and to benefit, retailers must recalibrate their approach to marketing, inventory and pricing to attract deal-seekers who may have been overlooked based on outdated perceptions.”
According to the research, there are differences by geography in how Millennials and Baby Boomers shop for the best deal.
In the northeast, 25% more Millennials are visiting multiple stores to find deals (73%) than Baby Boomers (48%) who prefer going online to look for deals. Nearly 6 in 10 Baby Boomers living in the northeast said they are more likely to search online for a good deal.
Out west, Millennial respondents are almost as inclined to look in-store for deals as they are to look online, 72% versus 76%. Baby Boomers are also showing a migration to online in this region, with 66% of those surveyed searching online, versus only 59% in-store.
