Understanding Gen X, Y, and Z
According to most retailers, there are two kinds of customers - one that is tech-savvy and one that isn’t. The generation that these consumers are born into has a lot to do with their technology adoption and hence their consumption habits. We break down the shopping patterns and customer behaviour of Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z.
Internet is one of the most powerful inventions of all time, the potential of which only keeps evolving and growing with every passing year. From macro economies to basic human behaviour, the internet seems to actively or passively govern many things that happen in the world today. As is with most industries, the advent of newer technologies has changed the whole face of retail in the recent past and since the customer is always at the heart of any retail decision, the way they behave has directly resulted in all the drastic transformations and evolution the sector has seen.
Every customer, depending on their gender, culture, background, personal likes and dislikes, and age behaves differently. However if it needs to be broadly classified, most retailers agree that there are three types of customers – one that was born before the internet era and lived majority of their life without it, one that was born before the internet became mainstream but are living through the transition of the internet phenomenon, and the ones that was born into a world that can’t live without the internet. Socialogically, these three demographics are termed Baby Boomers, Millennials and Generation Z.
However, Apparel Group’s
Dharmin Ved believes that today there are only two types of consumers. “One that was born when phones didn’t exist and one that was born when phones already existed. The latter are native online shoppers and the former had to do the shift online,” he said.
“What we have to offer is something that both these generations are able to use within the platform and make it easy and convenient for both these generations to use and experience our offerings. When we look at each of the customers, the native ones will be able to experience our digital offering (like the app) much deeper. You can see the difference of behaviour within the app. The incumbents will have a different kind of usage and experience and that is where personalization comes in to play - to understand how we can cater to both these journeys separately and service them separately. Things like click-andcollect is more popular with the older generation while the younger ones say that they want it delivered,” he added.