Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

While similarities exist across all age groups, some key differences emerge immediately.  First the similarities:  Most U.S. adults intend to spend the same amount or more while shopping online during this season as compared to a year ago.  85% of U.S. Adults 18 and older plan to do so, ranging from 86% of 18-54 year olds to 83% of those 55 and older.  Additionally, most consumers across all age groups plan to spend at least as much as they did last year on the top retail categories of Clothing and Electronics.  Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults plan to spend at least as much this season as they did last year on Clothing and Shoes and roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults plan to spend the same or more on Electronics.  However, Clothing and Electronics spending plans do vary by age group with younger shoppers more likely than older consumers to spend the same or more on Electronics (75% of A18-34 vs. 57% of A65+) and Clothing (82% of A18-34 vs. 71% of A65+ on Children’s Clothing, 78% of A18-34 vs. 63% of A65+ on Shoes).

Beyond spending plans, younger consumers are more prone to being influenced by digital and mobile media than older shoppers are in their Clothing purchases.   Overall, 1 in 4 U.S. adults report that they are influenced by Email Ads and 1 in 5 by Internet Ads in their Clothing purchases.  More U.S. adults are influenced by Email (26%) than Broadcast TV (21%) and more by Internet Ads (19%) than Cable TV (13%) in their Clothing purchases.   Digital influence is more pronounced among 18-34 year olds shopping for Clothing:  1 in 3 are Influenced by Email Ads, 1 in 4 by Internet Ads and 1 in 5 by Social Media.  This younger demo is also twice as likely as the general adult population to be influenced by Mobile Video, Blogs or Web Radio.  35-54 year olds parallel the general adult population in digital media influence on Clothing purchases and 55-64 year olds are a bit less influenced by these media.  Fewer clothing shoppers 65 and older are influenced by any media but twice as many of them are influenced by Internet Ads (10%) than Cable TV (5%)....

Key takeawaysDigital payments make up 53% of all transactions in Australia (and rising).

Convenience of digital payments rates highly with customers, but security does not.

Retailers have the opportunity to enhance user experience and reward customers by working with payment providers to gain insights from data.

The looming growth in digital payments offers many opportunities for retailers to understand and reward their customer, says a new Strategy& report....

In previous research, men have also been found to shop online more often than women, so the results here shouldn't be too surprising. But as before, it’s not clear what that exactly means. 

In an era when the lines between shopping online and in store are ever more blurred, it may behoove researchers to tease out exactly what "shopping" entails. Do men research products online without buying? Are they really buying more online than women? In the omnichannel/no-channel era, this would be useful to know.

This report does show how profoundly mobile has driven online shopping, and gives some clues about how to fashion mobile browsers vs apps....