Amazon top ecommerce destination for UK millennials

Amazon is now the number-one online retail destination for UK millennials according to a new study.

That’s according to new research published today by digital consultancy Inviqa in partnership with Magento Commerce, an Adobe company, and consumer research firm Vision One.

The report – ‘What millennials want: online retail in the Amazon Era’ – analyses the online shopping preferences and behaviours of 1,000 UK millennials and reveals that 59% of millennials ‘always’ or ‘often’ start their online shopping journeys on Amazon, with 1 in 5 16-36-year-olds always heading to Amazon when looking to make an online purchase.

Brett Lawrence, business consultancy director, Inviqa, said: ‘Millennials will become the mainstream consumer within a decade and they’re spending more on Amazon than any other demographic. As Amazon’s dominance continues to grow, it’s critical that retailers understand how they can better serve and anticipate the needs of millennial shoppers and put those needs at the heart of their digital offering. If a retailer is able to deliver real value to consumers, the future of its business does not have to be determined by Amazon’s movements’.

Some of the report’s headline findings are as follows:

Price is king for UK millennials. Price is the resounding number-one consideration for millennials when it comes to online retail. The leading reason millennials choose Amazon over other ecommerce sites is the perception that its products are often cheaper. Price is also the primary reason why millennials would shop with any ecommerce website again. A massive 87% of price-savvy millennials are very likely (41%) or likely (46%) to look at several different websites or apps to see where they can get the best price for a product.
16-36-year-olds shop with intent. Asked what makes a positive ecommerce experience, above everything else millennials say that their best online shopping encounters are when they know what they want and can find it quickly and easily. But ecommerce websites are making this difficult by failing at the basics, from site performance to product information. The most common problem millennials encounter when shopping online is a ‘lack of product information and / or reviews’ followed by the site being ‘too slow or containing errors’.
Amazon is transactional, not inspirational. Almost 1 in 10 millennials say the reason they would choose not to shop with Amazon is because they don’t always know what they’re looking for and it’s hard to find inspiration on Amazon. Amazon is the default shopping destination for millennials shopping with strong intent to buy, but providing experiences that allow consumers to enjoy the discovery of products, not just the fulfillment of what they know they want, is the greatest opportunity for retailers battling Amazon for millennial customers.
Reviews are integral to the ecommerce journey. A massive 93% of millennials are very likely (56%) or likely (37%) to read product reviews before making an online purchase. Offline research is dead, with just 1% of millennials saying they research offline before making online purchases. Mobile is king for research, and desktop / laptop is king for purchases.