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Articles & Research

06/25/2019

Location Data Revelation: Gen Z Returning to Physical Stores

The retail industry is on the cusp of a major paradigm shift. If you’re thinking that it’s the collapse of physical retail — think again.

Generation Z, the first generation of true digital natives, is currently coming of age. They account for about 25% of the population, and they’re expected to make up 40% of consumers in the US by next year.

They’re a huge market force and, contrary to generations before them, they’re showing quite a preference for shopping in-store as opposed to online.

Gen Z Flips the Script

Generation Z has always existed in a world with the internet. It’s been a given for them their entire lives. Yet despite the huge eCommerce infrastructure they’ve always had access to — which developed as the Millennial generation grew up — a whopping 80% of Gen Zers enjoy shopping in physical stores.

*Casper showcases their mattresses and other accessories in cozy cabins to draw visitors in*

What’s fueling such a drastic shift in shopping preferences in this upcoming generation? It’s a combination of three main driving factors:

Gen Z strongly prefers to experience products, test them out in person to see if its the right fit for them, before making a purchase
They are looking for shopping experiences that are more personalized to them, their interests, and their needs
They expect brands to engage with them on a deeper level than just at the surface

Interestingly, the second two factors here are things that Gen Z learned on the internet — where personalized ad and shopping experiences are common, and brands can easily and authentically engage with customers.

Despite the huge eCommerce infrastructure they’ve always had access to, a whopping 80% of Gen Zers enjoy shopping in physical stores.

Gen Z shoppers are now looking for those internet-born characteristics in their physical shopping scenarios, which throws a second curveball into the traditional retail formula.

Traditional Stores Won’t Cut It

Because Gen Z grew up on the internet, they learned to expect highly personalized shopping experiences and unique, innovative, immersive branding efforts. The web is awash with them; your run of the mill store, with its “pick an item off the shelf” format, is not.

What Gen Z is looking for, then, is more than just in-store shopping — it’s in-store shopping experiences. And perhaps the most interesting part of all of this is that the brands who seem to really be in sync with Gen Z are not traditional physical retail outlets, but companies that were born and raised on the internet.

What Gen Z is looking for, then, is more than just in-store shopping — it’s in-store shopping experiences

We used Ubimo’s Polaris, our self-service location intelligence platform, to track and analyze Gen Z’s behavior compared to generations before them, particularly Millennials. We took the real-world behavioral data of these two generations and mapped them against older brands with traditional physical retail presences and younger, digital-native brands that are only recently emerging into the physical retail space. We then analyzed the data to determine four key metrics: lift, efficiency, affinity, and exclusivity. Here’s a peek at of our findings:

For more data on Gen Z’s unique shopping preferences, the brands that are successfully adapting, and the role location intelligence plays, download our Gen Z Report for free today.

Generation Z and the Return to the Physical Store

Methodology: We used Polaris, Ubimo’s location intelligence platform, to analyze twelve stores nationwide. Including six agile brands–Amazon 4-Star, Bonobos, Casper, Everlane, Glossier, and Warby Parker–and six traditional brands–Adidas, H&M, Lenscrafters, Levi’s, Nike, and Mattress Firm. The Millennial Generation is defined as those age 25 to 34. Gen Z is defined as those with age between 18 and 24. All data was collected during a 90-day period. Ubimo’s panel includes over 150 million monthly active devices.

Disclaimer: This independent analysis is based on Ubimo’s location intelligence platform. As such, Ubimo does not have any relationship with companies featured in this report, nor should the independent analysis be construed in any way to suggest otherwise. Ubimo data is always anonymized and aggregated.

Pola Zen

VP of Marketing

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