This is a guest blog from Sony in our French office.
Contrary to many misconceptions, the 50 and over expertly mastered many veins of the web and especially that of shopping online. Indeed, according to a study conducted in France by the firm LH2 in partnership with Kelkoo & Hopscotch, this category of the population represents one third of online shoppers. This impressive observation, lead us to wonder why this target doesn’t have more e-commerce offers.
€ 1650 for online purchases per year
A year ago, LH2 published this survey named “Seniors e-shoppers, usability and behaviours when buying online”. The survey revealed a real addiction for seniors to e-commerce. In 2011, they accounted for, in fact, nearly half of online spending. Moreover, their online purchases averaged 39% (€ 1,644) of their annual budget for everyday use, or 36% more than the French average, estimated at € 1 208 per year. According to Nathalie Laine, communications manager at Fevad (French Distance Selling Association), this discrepancy could be explained by the particular type of products sought by the silver surfer: “Seniors have been first familiar with the e-commerce by purchasing travel online “, a relatively high position in the budget.
What are their motives? seniors seek above all to save money (40 € per month). Other factors also come into play, saving time and opportunity to find products not available near their home. Finally, for 25% of them, the opportunity to take delivery at home is also an important criterion.
Bulk purchases, private sales … where are the offers?
At a time when bulk buying and private sales sites are budding on the web, what about offers is dedicated to silver surfers? Fear of aging his image, disregard of this segment, tend to “youth culture” … Whatever the reason, advertisers and entrepreneurs still seem to neglect the seniors. However, after some research on the web we still found a few pioneers in this field.
The idea will be also not to involve senior only in paramedic services or products but to treat them as what they ware mostly : dynamic and curious.
Will silver surfers be future social-shoppers?
According to a second study of LH2 firm (named “Seniors & Social Networks”), many opportunities could be developed. Indeed, in addition to being “pros” of e-commerce, senior citizens would also be very comfortable on social networks. Unimaginable a few years ago, the 50 and over may prove to be true “social-shoppeurs” soon. Notice to social shopping and f-commerce professionals!
In addition to specialized online offers hard to emerge, offers can also be extended to the field of devices and especially to smartphones and tablets, considering the remarkable growth of m-commerce.
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