The buying trends of the Millennials
PCs and laptops still dominate the world of eCommerce but, as smartphones become ever more integral to daily life, mobile commerce remains in the ascendancy. Why? The Millennials are the key.
Who are the Millennials?
The Millennials are the generation formed by those born between 1981 and 1995. Also known as Generation Y, they are young people between 20 and 35 years old that have become adults with the change of the millennia (in the middle of the economic prosperity before the crisis). Their importance is marked, not only by their population weight, where they are a very large group (according to a Deloitte study, in 2025, they will represent 75% of the world’s workforce), but because they are the first generation of digital natives.
The Millennials are, therefore, the future generation of consumers and users. A substantial market with new characteristics, necessities and demands that brands do not always understand. Nowadays many divergences exist between what the brands offer and what is expected from them by the principal members of the Millennial Generation.
The mobile device is your life, it is not only a phone
The Millennials are possibly the most online-friendly generation. They like to be online, use the net for anything, and also use it to access the best offers. Thus, collectively, the mobile is more than a simple phone, it is their ‘partner in crime’.
For the Millennials their life is their mobile and its screen, the principal access door to the Net. This collectively has made smartphones their access of reference for socialization, work and leisure, integrating them completely in their everyday life.
Yes. They are addicted to their mobile device and they feel the need of a constant connection. In fact, 45% confesses that they would not be able to be one day without their smartphone.
The new (mobile) consumers
Smartphones are giving place to a new life style causing mCommerce to become more frequent, and the principal promoters of this initiative are the Millennials.
According to a study from Social Lens Research, 35% of Millennials assure that they buy from their smartphone devices. It not only points out that they buy more, but that they have become more Mobile Commerce Friendly and therefore, they spend more. Therefore, taking this information, we can infer that Millennials are the new “mobile” consumers.
The connected relationship between Millennials and mCommerce is more evident and the data speaks for itself. According to a recent study by Global Wb Index, 40% of young people use mobile commerce at least once a month.
How to seduce them?
The data results could be more splendid if brands managed to effectively connect with Millennials. Many Millennials believe that brands have settled with simply optimizing TV commercials to mobile devices, without changing their strategy a bit.
Let’s not forget that Millennials are more critical, demanding and volatile. In fact 86% declares that they would stop making business with a company because of a bad experience with a client. That is why, the experience (innovative and satisfactory) of the consumer must be one of the main ideas of the companies’ strategies.
The Millennials not only look for good attention, but also demand personalization and hope that the company adjusts to their preferences. With this perspective, companies need to take advantage, utilize the data, and appreciate its potential.
In an attempt to understand Millennials brands are already looking at the next generation: the Centennials, however they are opposite in their preferences, but they do have one common denominator, the usage of mobile devices in everyday life.
