How millennials have changed retail for everyone
Retailers are tailoring their sales tactics to the younger generation
Although it may seem hard to believe, millennials (those born between 1980 and 1995, approximately) have now surpassed baby boomers to become the world’s largest buying group. As a result, retailers are now tailoring their sales tactics to appeal to the younger generation, and this shift is impacting how all demographic groups now conduct their retail transactions.
For example, tech-native millennials have come to expect personalization, speed and frictionless online shopping experiences. Baby boomers—and those who still prefer to shop in a brick-and-mortar environment—have now also come to expect the same conveniences when shopping in-store. The net effect is that the retail shopping experience is improving for everyone. Retailers are investing in new technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to optimize in-store inventory and are using mobile technology to push customized offers to online and in-store shoppers.
What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander, so to speak. In return for providing a higher-level experience for their customers, retailers are also getting a wealth of real-time consumer data that can be used to upsell or encourage multi-purchase opportunities. The free flow and mining of data to provide better business insights is also a hallmark of companies like Tungsten Network. By digitizing the invoicing side of the supply chain, for example, forward-thinking companies can optimize cash flow forecasts, which can represent significant savings that can be passed down to the customer.
Savvy retailers are leveraging the scale of the millennial shopping generation to identify and eliminate points of friction in the shopping experience. By focusing on meeting the needs of this tech-savvy demographic, the retail industry has actually made shopping better for us all.
