By Stuart Lauchlan September 2, 2019

SUMMARY: Gen Z may be digitally-native and always connected, but that doesn't mean they don't want to browse the store floor.

The pursuit of the Gen Z consumer is a primary goal for retailers, but are firms pitching at the wrong part of the omni-channel mix to lure this digitally-native demographic? Recent research suggests that while these shoppers are supposedly inextricably attached to their smartphones and apps, they’re actually big fans of the offline store - and are not as fixated on Amazon as retailers themselves are.

We’ve noted on several occasions a growing realisation among so-called legacy retailers that their store real estate is a massive asset if managed correctly as part of a coherent omni-channel strategy that balances online and offline. Rather than race to move everything online, fuelled by Amazon-envy, learning to ‘love the store’ has been an important development in the turbulent retail sector.

This chimes with Gen Z’s predilections and that matters. Pursuit of Gen Z spenders isn’t just the latest ‘buzzword-compliant’ move by retailers (although if it means that we’ve moved past the inevitable Millennial mantras of recent years, that’s a positive in its own right!).

But the reality is that Gen Z has become an important retail constituency. Recent research by marketing data firm Engagement Labs, suggest that around 40% - and rising - of US shoppers are from a Gen Z demographic. It’s worth noting that dating Gen Z varies depending on which organization is opining, but it’s basically mid-90s through to mid-2010s in terms of date of birth.

Read the full Diginomica article, here.

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