With millennials spending $200 billion a year globally, a figure that’s set to double by 2020, retailers and brands are making it a top priority to understand and woo this increasingly influential demographic.
So what do the kids want? Freedom, happiness, meaning. It’s pretty much exactly what their parents wanted at the same age and yet, millennials do differ from previous generations in one crucial way — and it comes down to shopping.
According to a survey conducted by The Intelligence Group, a division of Creative Artists Agency, more and more of us shop for shopping’s sake, browsing products and engaging with brands without actually buying anything. Termed “fauxumerism,” this approach treats “e-commerce and m-commerce as being as much about entertainment as acquisition.”
To make matters worse, 36% of survey respondents said that “they only buy things they deem necessary.” Additionally, a whopping 72% “said they research their options online before buying in a store.” Another third care about the ethical dimension of their purchases: 32% “said they’ve stopped buying from companies when they’ve become aware of social practices they deem unacceptable.” These figures paint a bleak picture for retailers, who would obviously prefer to have a more impulsive, frivolous and morally bereft customer base. [via WWD]
