Youth

Millennial (18-35) women are 52% more likely than their male counterparts to agree that they "love to shop" (44% vs. 29%), per results [pdf] from an Urban Land Institute (ULI) survey conducted with Lachman Associates. While young men are more likely than young women to say that shopping is a necessary chore that they can deal with (15% vs. 9%), they're also more likely to say they shop when it's necessary, and enjoy it when they do (51% vs. 45%). Overall, the study indicates that America's youth enjoy shopping on the whole, which might explain why they're more likely than other generations to identify as "spenders" rather than "savers." Read more »

Americans may not be as keen to share personal and other content online as citizens in other countries, suggests a survey from Ipsos OTX. The study asked respondents to identify how much they share online - including status updates, feelings, photos, videos, and links. Across the 24 countries tracked, an average of 24% said they'd best describe their amount of sharing as either "most things" or "everything." But that figure dropped to just 15% among American respondents. Read more »

Fewer Americans are cutting their spending when compared to prior years, but most of those who are say that this is their "new normal," according to survey results from Gallup. Overall, 73% of Americans polled in early April said they have been spending either less (41%) or the same (32%) amount of money in recent months than they used to. While the 41% spending less is down from a high of 57% in February 2010, about three-quarters of those believe that this decreased spending will become a new normal pattern, rather than representing a temporary change in their spending patterns. Read more »

Americans aged 18-34 are more likely than their older counterparts to prefer a range of entertainment types on-demand, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Stitcher. For example, among music listeners, 18-34-year-olds are twice as likely as 35-54-year-olds to prefer to listen always or mostly on demand (46% vs. 23%). And among TV viewers, 41% of those aged 18-34 prefer to watch always or mostly on demand, versus 21% of those aged 55 and older. Indeed, the desire to watch on one's own schedule has become a key driver of online video consumption. Read more »

56% of UK consumers say they would never use a company again if faced with a negative customer service experience, according to survey results from NewVoiceMedia. Beyond taking their business elsewhere, 29% would tell their friends and peers about their bad experience, while 19% would post a review online and 14% would complain on social media. Much as they'd punish companies for a bad service experience, though, these consumers would reward them for a positive one. 74% of respondents said a positive customer experience would lead them to be more loyal, and 71% would recommend the company to others. Read more »

In conjunction with a new monthly e-commerce tracking initiative, Shopzilla has released research from a survey of online shoppers conducted immediately after their purchases from the Bizrate Insights Network of more than 5,200 e-commerce retailers in the US and Canada. The data shows that buyers were most likely to have first seen their most recent online purchase while surfing around online (29%) or when looking to find something specific (25%). Beyond those top 2 points of inspiration, store emails (11%) emerged as a key source, cited by more respondents than magazines (8%), ads (6%), blogs and other web content sites (4%). Read more »

Some tablet owners are spending a significant amount of time watching video on their devices, details GfK in a new data release. According to the study, among tablet owners, Millennials (born 1977-1994) spend on average 23% of their total video viewing time (time spent watching video on any device, including TV, in a 7-day period) with their devices. Millennial tablet owners are far more engaged with video on their devices than other generations: Gen Xers (born 1965-1976) spend 16% of their video viewing time with them; Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) spend 11%; and pre-Boomers (born before 1946) spend 6%. Read more »

Perhaps the exhibitions industry shouldn't be too worried about younger, digitally-obsessed generations shunning face-to-face contact. According to a new study [download page] from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), 61% of Millennials aged 18-27 believe that exhibits at exhibitions, conventions and annual meetings are more valuable today than they were 2 years ago. That's the highest percentage of any generation, with older Millennials and young Gen Xers (aged 28-39; 53%) the next-most confident about the growing value of face-to-face interaction in this setting. Read more »

Roughly 7 in 10 smartphone and tablet owners have tried to make purchases on their device, indicating a high degree of comfort and enthusiasm with mobile commerce, according to a new study commissioned by Jumio and conducted by Harris Interactive. However, two-thirds of this group report having abandoned a purchase due to a problem with the checkout experience. Most commonly, these respondents said they didn't feel comfortable entering their credit card information (51%), while many also blamed a checkout process that took too long (47%) or that was too difficult on their device (41%). Read more »

Millennials might be a prized target for marketers, but their financial health is under fire, details Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) in its latest MarketPulse Survey. The Shopper Sentiment Index, which measures the economy's impact on consumers and how they approach grocery shopping, remained at approximately 85 among Millennials in Q1, a level it has stood at or around for a year. By contrast, the index for consumers as a whole recovered from 94 in Q4 2012 to 103 in Q1, indicating that Millennials consider themselves to be far worse off than the general consumer. Read more »