In our last blog, we shared overall marketing trends to keep an eye on in 2016. In this entry, we’ll hone our efforts to focus on the buying habits and trends of consumers with the help of research carried out by the good people at business2community.com.
Who’s in the Study?
Researchers looked at two populations for their study: 1,002 U.S. shoppers over the age of 18 and 1,005 U.S. over the age of 18 who’ve made an online purchase within the past 6 months.
Those two audiences were further segmented by generations this way:
- Millennials: 18 – 34 years-old
- Gen Xers: 35 – 49 years-old
- Baby Boomers: 50 – 68 years-old
- Seniors: 69-years-old and older
The Findings
The main takeaway from the study is that there is no preferred method of shopping. Rather, we should no longer think of consumers as either predisposed for one form of purchasing over another. Whether it’s online or in an actual brick and mortar store, consumers are going for whatever is convenient at the time.
With that in mind, it may be surprising to learn that parents – as a whole – are primarily online shoppers. They particularly like online marketplaces where variety is king – Amazon, eBay, Jet, and Etsy.
Other Notable Findings
- A majority of Millennials (67%) and Gen Xers (56%) prefer to do their shopping online rather than going to an actual store.
- Baby Boomers and Seniors are also active online. While Baby Boomers spend about 4 hours per week shopping online, Seniors are online shopping about 2.5 hours per week.
- Men were reported to have spent 28% more online than women in the past year.
- While 51% of U.S. shoppers say that online shopping is the way to go, 49% said they’d prefer to shop in an actual store.
- When they’re ready to shop online, nearly half of U.S. consumers (48%) will start their search with one of the big boys, like Amazon or eBay.
From Where Did They Make Their Purchase
One of the more interesting components of the study was where people actually were when they made their online purchase.
- 23% made their purchase while still at the office.
- Millennials and Gen Xers are about 3 times as likely as Baby Boomers and Seniors to make an online purchase from bed.
- While 1 in 10 shoppers confessed to making an online purchase after drinking alcohol, men were the more likely to do so by a margin of 2:1.
Keep Your Business Current by Calling Caldiatech
There’re lots more interesting results from the study, and we encourage you to check it out. As we’ve said many times before, technology is always changing. That’s why we encourage you to leverage our expertise so that your business is best positioned for success as the changes occur.
To make sure your business is capitalizing on where your audience is located, get in touch with us here at Caldiatech. You can call us at 800-728-1441 or send us an email.