Millennials on the past years have gained the spotlight in the society. Though their sphere of influence had been around for quite some time, getting familiarized with them is still a tedious job at hand.
According to the Labor Force Survey, Filipino Millennials accounts to 47.1% of the total workforce in 2015. With this data, it would be easy to conclude that Millennials will be a bigger and bigger determinant in decisions that every retailer should make. But in order to fully capture the attention of Millennials might be a little tricky as they are more diverse hard to predict compared to their predecessors. It is worth considering that in order to understand their spending behavior, it is important to know the factors that pushes them to make their purchases.
Spending habits of Millennials
Getting used to the purchasing behavior of millennials can be challenging. For one, the factor that pushes them to decide to buy a certain service or product can be highly subjective. Millennials have a knack to purchase anything that would make them feel good and important than others. It is highly imperative for retailers to make sure that the products they are selling are always in the best possible condition and the shopping experience is memorable for the consumers. Millennials are after experience that will make them a star of their social media accounts. Most of the time, the purchases that millennials make are for validation that they are having a good life, or in a more millennial term, completely “instagrammable”.
Another common behavior that can be observed among the said age cohort is their maturity in making their purchases. Millennials are always tagged as “Smart Buyers”. This is a good connotation most especially if you belong to the age group. Yet smart buying is not intrinsic among millennials. This could be reflected on the factor that the current situation is pushing millennials to be wiser in spending their hardly earned money. It is important for retailers to take this factor into consideration to make sure that the products and services they are selling to this age group will always be worth the price, or better yet, make consumers feel like they are getting more than what they paid for.
It can also be noted that Millennials are keener to pay for experiences than material objects. The number of traveling agencies have grown dramatically over the past years and the rising inclination to travel also distinguishes Millennials from its predecessors. Again, traveling can come as a self-gratification that you are getting more than what you paid for. Experiences and memories are intangible and it cannot be measured by durability, taste, or appearance. Anything that can give you a sense that you’re getting something that cannot be measured keeps Millennials – and even other generation to be on their feet traveling and seeing the world. Retailers are not blind to not see this trend. Most companies are coming up with branding strategies that can capture travelers. Such as coming up with freebies that would come in handy while traveling, making travel-size packaging, using flight tickets as prices to certain promos and other travel-related marketing strategy.
Millennials are more diverse
In order to successfully market to millennials, it should be accepted that they are a diversed group. The interconnectedness brought about by technology and social media gives the millennials the space to freely express their varying opinions and beliefs and feel totally fine with it. In fact, in the present time, being different from a pack is not frowned upon like in the past and respect for other’s opinion and preference is highly encouraged.
To cater to multi-faceted millennials, retailers should always tailor-fit their services and brands that could accommodate specific segments in the society instead of the usual generality in the demographics.
Interconnectedness among Digital Savvy Millennials
As previously mentioned, Millennials are digital savvy individuals interpolating technology to communication and self-expression. They use the digital platform not only to communicate with the people they know but also to express themselves to other people, whether they are the ones they know on a personal level or not. Needless to say, more and more people are populating the online world nowadays. Retailers had been quick to recognize this. Though e-commerce is not a new concept, it continues to innovate each year by coming up with a more convenient way to sell products and services, as well as becoming more consumer-centric.
It is important for retailers to gain presence or start on being recognized in the online platform. This is proven to be a very effective medium of communicating with consumers as well as boosting the company or the store’s reach.
Are millennials completely taking over?
It is a highly contested topic whether millennials are completely taking over or not. Some of their predecessors are still in the workforce and are still making a significant percentage of population in the market with high purchasing power. Though it is imperative to be prepared with the rising influence and number of millennials, it would be a fatal mistake to disregard other generations. The past generations are the ones with more dispensable income to spend and retailers should always keep that in mind. The best advice would always be to be prepared on whichever medium a consumer would choose to use as well as be prepared on whatever generation your prospect customer would belong to. The current situation calls for retailers to be more flexible than ever in order to cater to their consumers’ demands.