What Products Do Baby Boomers Buy?
Understanding your target audience’s preferences is one key task entrepreneurs should take on when starting a business. It allows you to create a more effective sales and marketing strategy and grow your business.
If you’re selling products catering to an older generation, such as those between their late-50s to late-70s, knowing baby boomers’ spending habits and consumer behavior can come in handy. So what products do baby boomers buy in physical stores and online?
What products do baby boomers buy in physical stores?
Results from a recent survey on baby boomer spending habits show that the top items this demographic acquires in physical stores are groceries. As many as nine in 10 (90%) baby boomers (defined as those aged 59 to 77) say they buy groceries in-store, rather than online.
This is followed by pharmaceutical products, which close to two-thirds (61%) of the surveyed baby boomers say they buy in a brick-and-mortar store. Beauty products, clothing and shoes, and items related to home and garden round out the top five types of products boomers prefer to purchase in physical stores, with between 31% and 37%.
Here are the other products boomers buy in-store and the percentage of them that do so:
- Leisure, sport, and hobby: 14%
- Children's products: 14%
- Electronics: 13%
- Automobile parts or accessories: 12%
- Jewelry and accessories: 8%
- Entertainment: 7%
What do baby boomers buy online?
Results from the same survey on baby boomer consumer behavior paint a slightly different picture when it comes to their online spending habits. Percentage-wise, there are much fewer baby boomers acquiring products over the internet across almost all categories.
Clothing and shoes are the most popular products boomers acquire online. Even then, just 25% of them do so. This is followed by pharmaceutical products, with 18%. Electronics and beauty-related products rank next, with 17% each.
Products from all other categories are bought online by fewer than one in six baby boomers surveyed:
- Groceries: 14%
- Entertainment: 13%
- Leisure, sport, and hobby: 11%
- Home and garden: 9%
- Children's products: 8%
- Automobile parts or accessories: 7%
- Jewelry and accessories: 6%
Baby boomer spending habits are a stark contrast to that of millennials. For instance, millennial online shopping statistics show that the products least millennials buy online are those related to home and garden. But even then, as many as 24% of them do so.