Generation Z is that generation succeeding Millennials (approximately born between approximately 1994 to 2010) and in 2019, 32% of the global population were classified as Generation Z. They are a generation who value experience over product and a digital-first group. However despite growing up online, this generation crave interactive and ‘in real life’ experiences. Similarly called the ‘gaming’ generation they want technology to enable them to express themselves as individuals and connect with brands and peers through shared values. Here Underlines takes a look at the demands of this generation of shoppers and its impact on retailing when eventually our high streets, shopping centres and cities re-open.
Key Generation Z Statistics*:
- Generation Z comprises 32% of world population, making it the largest cohort.
- By 2020, Generation Z will make up 40% of all US consumers.
- Generation Z influences $600 B in family spending.
- Nearly 50% of Gen Z-ers are connected to the internet for 10 or more hours a day.
- 95% of teenagers use or have access to a smartphone.
- Gen Z consumers are 2X more likely to shop on mobile than Millennials.
- Instagram and YouTube are the most popular social media platforms for Gen Z.
- 67% of Gen Z-ers do most of their shopping in physical stores.
The expectation in brand and retail experience of Gen Z is still driven by desire but on their own terms: digitisation and hyper-reality are big culture drivers, especially in the creative sphere where virtual gigs, artificial intelligence and digital fashion are becoming increasingly relevant. So seen in augmented reality filters as influencing Instagram and Snapchat which bleeds into retail.
Virtual reality is also important – the opportunity exists to persuade these digital natives into real-world events to capture younger consumer loyalty. Means to capturing this audience include fully immersive and sensory retail experiences, omni-channel with sentient experiences, mobilising brand loyalist as retail activation partners and consumer controlled and shop able content.
All this sounds like a tall order especially to those outside of the Gen Z but forward thinkers have already seized opportunities to engage and involve these consumers in their brand strategies.
Fully Immersive & Sensory Retail Experiences
Mixed-reality initiatives using the latest technology can help create deep emotional engagement – brands are already borrowing from the gaming and film world to bring this into real-life, including haptics, sonic and VR to develop traditional or existing in-store spaces.
Omni Channel: Sentient Experiences
Reinventing store design and retail experience, spaces are being developed that can connect the dots between the location, visitor, service and products inside. These include concepts using ambient and interactive screens, self-service tools, virtual-trial solutions, IoT (Internet of Things) and facial recognition, adjusting content in real-time from messaging to pricing and payments to wellbeing.
Mobilising brand loyalists as Retail Partners
Involving customers in key initiatives is hardly news but Gen Z are used to building and joining more fragmented and niche community groups, where they know they are surrounded with people who share the same passions. Brands can embrace and entice these ‘super’ fans into real-world experiences, building their own aspirational (digital) platforms, bringing them in as partners in retail engagement (and with selective membership and engagement rewards).
Consumer Controlled and Shoppable Content
Brands are seeing that a generation used to digital and gaming creates the urge for both control and personalisation – brands will give consumers the chance to alter their environment like window displays (via mobile devices or touchscreen tech). The effect is to create simply and playful (yet effective upgrades in-store) with augmented reality blurring the physical-digital boundaries to add a surreal but also instantly shoppable layer onto the world, with products and mannequins brought to life.
Superficially it is might seem that Gen Z is a digital first group so that means technology first. However this is not the full picture: despite growing up online, Gen Z crave interactive and ‘in real life’ experiences (and simultaneously expressing themselves as individuals and connecting with brands and peers through shared values).
*Source: 99Firms
Thanks to The Green Room for source material: images courtesy of Shutterstock.
