Study Shows Younger Generations Prefer Buying Shoes In-Store
A study conducted by a market research company has found that Millennials and Generation Z prefer buying shoes at brick-and-mortar stores as opposed to exclusively online.
As reported by , the Collage Group surveyed 3000 people across the four major generation groups, commonly known as Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z. The responses indicated that big-box retailers and shoe stores were the top preferred locations for all generations to purchase footwear. The latter two age groups showed the strongest interest in shopping at physical locations, while the older clusters seemed to spread their shoe shopping between physical and online methods.
However, all four groups said their preferred retail experience wasn’t absolute, with most happy to utilise both mediums. In fact, 55 per cent of Millennial respondents shopped both online and in-store, representing the highest proportion of this combined method. They were also most likely to browse items in person before purchasing online, plus sign up for rewards programs. On the other hand, Boomers were least likely to window shop IRL before copping online, and they also had the least intake for loyalty sign-ups.
The persistence of physical shopping habits may reflect consumers wanting to return to more traditional means of retail following years of digital pushes from all facets of the industry.