Influencers, as the name reveals: influence. A major study by consultancy firm Wunderman Thompson Commerce found that more than half of young people under the age of 16 are seduced by sponsored influencer posts on Instagram. Looking at the several types of sponsored influencer content, online videos are most popular.
The researchers report in Generation Alpha Report 2019 that influencers are going to play the most important role in the lives of the next generations of shoppers. Although friends (28 percent) influence the buying behavior of these young people the most, vloggers and bloggers are in second place with 25 percent. Family influence covers third place with 21 percent.
Consequences for retailers
14 percent of young people would like their favorite influencer to start their own store in the future. This implies that when influencers collaborate with retailers, this can have extremely large consequences for the retail landscape.
In any case, it means a more competitive environment for the retail industry. In order to survive this increased competition, companies must recognize the connection between influencer and consumer and keep a close eye on the further development of influencers and influencer marketing.
The authors of the report insist on becoming aware of the great influence of social media on these young people. 57 percent of young people state that seeing advertisements for products or services on Instagram tempts them to make a purchase. As said before, the type of content makes a difference here; online videos are most popular (24 percent), followed by social media postings (19 percent).
Amazon can still do without influencer marketing
Currently, Amazon is one of the few e-commerce platforms that doesn’t use influencer marketing (yet), the research conclude. The retail giant is one of the ten most recognized and loved brands among young people. 84 percent knows the brand Amazon and 70 percent of them are well acquainted with Amazon’s loyalty program Prime. Striking: a tenth of these young people also know the name of Amazons founder: Jeff Bezos.
Sustainable companies young people
Furthermore, 66 percent of young people under 16 indicate that they would like to buy from sustainable companies, as well as from companies that are committed to corporate social responsibility.
Physical vs. online shop
Another tip from the research: companies should not only think about their short term strategy (1-2 years), they should think about their long term strategy (> 10 years). In ten years, 19 percent of the young people surveyed think they will buy products in a physical store. Having a physical shop seems to remain relevant.
11 percent imagines that they will buy products from their thoughts in ten years’ time. They even think that they will shop more through these so-called brain-computer interfaces than with speech assistants (9 percent) or via social media (5 percent).
Young people are less patient
Also interesting: the young people were asked about package delivery. Unsurprisingly: they are less patient than adults. They are willing to wait an average of 2.23 days for their package, for adults the acceptable duration is 2.95 days. Almost a quarter of the young people surveyed say they never buy anything from a retailer who cannot deliver the next day.
For now, I’m pretty sure we gave you enough food for thought ;).
