Gen Z keeps confounding Corporate America.
They've shunned beer, they want companies to take political stands and they trust Kardashians to make their makeup choices. But perhaps the biggest surprise about this new cohort of teenagers is the most unexpected of all: They love the shopping mall.
Around 95 percent of them visited a physical shopping center in a three-month period in 2018, as opposed to just 75 percent of millennials and 58 percent of Gen X, according to an International Council of Shopping Centers study. And they genuinely like it; three-quarters of them said going to a brick-and-mortar store was a better experience than online, ICSC found.
"There's always been this assumption that as you go through the age spectrum, the younger consumer that has grown up with online and digital and is very savvy would shun physical experiences," said Neil Saunders, an analyst at GlobalData Retail. "But actually that's not turned out to be the case.
Gen Z—or the group of kids, teens and young adults roughly between the ages of 7 and 22—still appreciate brick and mortar. But they aren't just millennials living in a different time. Today's teens interact differently with stores than their older siblings and Gen X parents before them, and several retailers who didn't understand the fundamental differences in how they shop landed themselves in bankruptcy court: Think Charlotte Russe, Wet Seal and Claire's, once staples of the teen mall circuit.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...d-not-if-gen-z-keeps-shopping-the-way-they-do
Man, Gen X is just done with brick and mortar lol.
They've shunned beer, they want companies to take political stands and they trust Kardashians to make their makeup choices. But perhaps the biggest surprise about this new cohort of teenagers is the most unexpected of all: They love the shopping mall.
Around 95 percent of them visited a physical shopping center in a three-month period in 2018, as opposed to just 75 percent of millennials and 58 percent of Gen X, according to an International Council of Shopping Centers study. And they genuinely like it; three-quarters of them said going to a brick-and-mortar store was a better experience than online, ICSC found.
"There's always been this assumption that as you go through the age spectrum, the younger consumer that has grown up with online and digital and is very savvy would shun physical experiences," said Neil Saunders, an analyst at GlobalData Retail. "But actually that's not turned out to be the case.
Gen Z—or the group of kids, teens and young adults roughly between the ages of 7 and 22—still appreciate brick and mortar. But they aren't just millennials living in a different time. Today's teens interact differently with stores than their older siblings and Gen X parents before them, and several retailers who didn't understand the fundamental differences in how they shop landed themselves in bankruptcy court: Think Charlotte Russe, Wet Seal and Claire's, once staples of the teen mall circuit.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...d-not-if-gen-z-keeps-shopping-the-way-they-do
Man, Gen X is just done with brick and mortar lol.
