Older consumers heading for the Web at Christmas – but one mistake and you’ve blown it

Sep 26, 2010 by Dirk Singer

A series of interesting stats found via the Euromonitor blog, the over 45s will be heading to online stores this Christmas. But they are also going to be your most demanding customers.

Euromonitor quotes Logan Tods Annual Online Shopping Index, which predicts that (UK) online sales will hit £1.26bn ($1.98bn) for Christmas 2010 – that means that UK consumers will be doing 23% more shopping online compared to 2009. Not bad considering it’s – in theory anyway – coming at the end of a recession.

A lot of that growth is coming from the over 45s. Good news – this group is the fastest growing, and it’s also the richest. But it is also the group least likely to do their homework about you or put up with any glitches. Seventy percent (70%) of older Internet surfers do research online before buying compared to 60% of all shoppers, and Logan Tod says that “this group is less willing to accept a poor customer experience.”

And the most important conversion factors? Sensible stuff, rather than frills. Ultimately it’s all about delivery options (68%), site search (67%), and well written copy (50%).

Image – Brian J Matis