So a Millennial Walks Into a Store…
Yesterday, I wrote about the unique perspective the Millennial generation as a whole brings to retail. This group is the first generation to grow up with a computer in their homes, in their schools, and in their pockets — if you count smartphones’ computing power. But I decided this morning to do a little of my own (very limited) research with a Millennial I’m fond of: my son.
Think you know Millennials? How they perceive retail and shopping for things may surprise you.
Understand, he is at the young end of the generational span. Born in 1997, he will turn 17 on Sunday. He is like many other young men his age: He has a part time job, will have his license in less than two weeks (we hope) and is a strong student. He’s personable and affable, while at the same time successful at being self-centered in the way most teenagers are. Contrary to recent research on members of this generation, he is brand conscious, and, frankly, fussy. Patagonia, Timberland and L.L. Bean have a place in his closet. He’s athletic. He texts and chats with friends in Google hangouts. He’s pretty typical.
So I asked him on the ride to school, “Hey, if you were going to buy something substantial, like a television set, for your sister, for Christmas, how would you go about doing it?” I really thought I was going to hear a diatribe on why she shouldn’t get a TV, why wasn’t he getting one, etc., but he seemed to understand this was a hypothetical and played along nicely. He said: “I’d go to a store, like a Best Buy, and talk to the guy there. Then I’d go home and look up what he told me. I’d look at the reviews and make a decision.”
I asked him where he thought he’d ultimately buy it. He wasn’t sure, but leaned toward going back to Best Buy, depending on what his research turned up. I also wondered why he didn’t start his research online. He responded, “I want to touch it and try it out. I want to talk with someone who knows what he is talking about.”
Nothing trumps the ability to physically see a product. Whether the customer is 17 or 77, customers want to “test-drive” when possible. And, think about it, wading through dozens of products, reviews and images is time consuming. We GenXers and Baby Boomers remember the days of visiting six or seven stores to get pricing and product information; so the ability to look up all that data online is seen by us as a huge time savings. Millennials have no such frame of reference. They’ve never been driven around town on a hot summer day with no air conditioning to see if that 18-inch RCA was on sale at “just one more place.”
So, rather than spend time researching online, people like my son will simply pick the brains of a retail “expert.” A 15-minute chat with a knowledgeable associate is likely to yield as much information as sitting in front of the computer for an hour. Plus, the customer gets to touch and feel the product in question. It’s a quick, efficient method for getting everything accomplished in a rather social manner.
Brick and mortars are in a unique position to cast themselves in the role of trusted advisor or product expert. By investing in merchandise training for associates, a retailer becomes known as “the” place to shop for particular items. Couple that with modern, customer-facing technology — such as mobile point of sale, RFID and personalized loyalty programs — and retailers have a recipe for success. Even with Millennials like my son.
