Have you noticed that your target client is becoming more and more postmillennial? You’re not the only one! The millennium generation and baby boomers are losing strength at times.
Postmillennials are getting stronger at times. These consumers, born 1995 and 2012, have a series of characteristics that make them unique.
They are digital natives, which means they grew up with the Internet, social networks and smartphones. They pay less and less attention to television, print media or radio. And their perception of brands and companies is also different.
They have a lot to learn from postmillennials. Did you know, for example, that they use 2.0 channels to communicate with brands, that they expect companies to leave a positive social footprint, or that they are more demanding with the quality-price ratio of products than millennials?
If you want to be one of the ‘survivors’ of these and other marketing challenges of Generation Z, don’t miss the following lines:
What are the Generation Z marketing challenges that ecommerces must overcome?
Bringing price and quality closer than ever before
According to a Lincoln Financial Group study, 6 out of 10 postmillennials have a savings account at their bank and more than 7 out of 10 say they are concerned about saving on their purchases.
But does that mean Generation Z is stingy by nature? None of that!
But they are more demanding on the price-performance ratio of products compared to baby boomers or the millennium generation.
In this sense, one of the challenges posed by Generation Z to ecommerce is to adjust price and quality so that they are closer than ever.
Are you afraid to make expensive purchases? No, but they do expect quality to match the price they have paid. Otherwise, you could stop trusting our ecommerce forever.
Providing 2.0 customer service
Did you know that Generation Z is the first group of consumers who were born and live connected to the internet? They don’t know what it’s like to live without a smartphone, WiFi connection or social networks.
This is not something negative for brands, but they must take note of the consumption habits of this generation.
For example, when a postmillennial customer wants to file a complaint or make a query to a company, what channel do you use, the phone, email?
In an astonishing percentage of cases, postmillennials use Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp or chatbots on company websites.
Why? Because it is an immediate communication channel and it adapts perfectly to the type of applications that they usually use in their daily lives.
As if that weren’t enough, several studies have shown that postmillennials consumers expect a response in less than 1-2 hours. Now ecommerce must provide lightning customer service!
But this challenge has a positive side for online stores: they can help and resolve conflicts with their consumers more quickly. This has a positive effect on the sales cycle, which is also shortened.
Make ads more visual and concise
Another marketing challenge for Generation Z is the preference for more visual, concise and less intrusive content and ads.
Believe it or not, video content will account for 80% of Internet traffic by 2020, according to Smart Insights data. Guess what one of the drivers is? Indeed, generational change.
Millennials and their consumption habits are causing the video markerting boom, which will increase in importance in the coming years.
The ecommerces must not stand idly by. If they want to survive, they have to adapt their marketing campaigns. Textual content, while important, should be reduced in favour of images and videos.
Concision is important. Traditional ads (such as TV spots) will not have a good impact on this audience, which has no objection to consumer ads of less than 10 seconds.
Maybe now you understand why YouTube ads and other platforms are so short.
In short, make your marketing initiatives shorter, more visual and bring more value to your customers – otherwise they could be perceived as intrusive.
Making ecommerce leave a positive social footprint
Most of Generation Z believe that companies have a social responsibility not only to their consumers, but also to the environment, society, etc.
In this sense, their way of thinking may seem naive, but it makes sense within the framework of current competitiveness. If I buy Walmart products instead of AliExpress, where does a percentage of my money go, what do these companies use part of their profits for?
For postmillennials consumers, it is important that their brands leave a positive social mark. None of them want to contribute to deforestation, inequality or other problems in the world.
But how does this affect an average ecommerce and what can it do to improve? Let’s think about packaging and ask a simple question: is it sustainable? Making it sustainable is an excellent way to win the hearts of postmillennials.
Be more receptive and open to criticism
And if you’re still wondering what the challenges are for Generation Z, you should know that hype, exaggeration, and dishonesty in ads is poorly tolerated by these consumers.
And they’re not afraid to come clean and say what they think about ecommerces when their marketing campaigns make a mistake.
For this reason, Generation Z will make corporate crises a greater threat to brands. They don’t make a phone call or send a letter of complaint to the company: they spread their malaise on social networks so that everyone knows.
But what happens when companies don’t apologize when they make a mistake? That’s when disaster is served.
Digital brands must learn to be responsive and open to criticism. Chanting mea culpa in time will save them a lot of trouble with postmillennials consumers.
In short, there are many marketing challenges posed by Generation Z. But the best ecommerces will know how to adapt to the needs of this public and overcome all their challenges with a note.
Will your online store be one of the laggards or will it lead the revolution proposed by the postmillennials?
