Why aren't retailer apps cutting it with Millennials?
Despite near complete saturation when it comes to smartphone use, Millennials have been slow to adopt shopping apps. New studies on Millennial shopping habits and app adoption suggest the solution may lie in crafting programs suited to the generation's unique shopping habits.
A study by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by RetailMeNot, found that while 84 percent of consumers use their smartphones while in stores, they are not making use of retailer apps.
"Of the U.S. consumers surveyed who have used a mobile phone in the last three months to perform a retail-related activity, 60 percent have two or fewer retailer apps on their phones, and 21 percent do not have any." Over half of those who responded said they use retailer apps once a month or less, and more often than not they use smartphone web browsers to redeem coupons in-store rather than an app.
The tendency of Millennials to redeem coupons through smartphone browsers instead of through apps is in keeping with the picture painted by a report titled "Food Shopping in America" by MSLGROUP and The Hartman Group which calls spontaneity a prime driver for Millennials, along with uniqueness and budget constraints.
Base: Variable consumers who have used their mobile
phone in the past three months to perform each ret
ail-related activity
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester
Consulting on behalf of RetailMeNot, July 2015
The report further goes on to say that personal recommendations from friends and a unique mix of choices in the basket tend to be big drivers of Millennial purchasing.
So a no-frills app that asks very little from a user and offers deals that play off of a desire for a spontaneous, surprising and money-saving experience could be an app that a Millennial would be more likely to install.
On the other hand, despite the industry's desire to push app adoption, Millennials' affinity for using smartphone browsers may indicate that dedicating resources to a good old-fashioned mobile web presence — and innovating along those lines — is the way the grab the Millennial customer's mercurial attention.