• by Jess Nelson , March 25, 2016

Amidst cries that email is dead, a new report from marketing technology company Adestra suggests that teens and Millennials actually prefer communicating with brands by email.

More than half of teenagers and Millennials rely on email to shop online, according to an Adestra study of 1,200 consumers released Thursday. In addition, 68% of teens and 73% of Millennials responded that they prefer to receive communication from businesses via email.

"For the last few years, it's been widely assumed that email would fade away because Millennials and teens weren't going to use it," states Ryan Phelan, VP of marketing insights for Adestra. "It turns out that the opposite is true. Email continues to be part of everyday life across all age groups, with consumers literally hanging out in their inboxes all day long."

Adestra’s study closely mirrors the results of Epsilon’s new shopping survey, which suggests Millennials may be more susceptible to email marketing than any other age group.

Some 43% percent of Millennials admit to checking a retailer’s email marketing messages more often within the past six months, compared to an average of 32% for other shopping age groups. Millennial shoppers were also more likely to use email coupons and daily deals when compared to older generations, according to Epsilon’s study.

It’s important to note that both Adestra’s and Epsilon’s studies reflect how younger generations prefer communicating specifically with businesses.

For everyday communication, it would seem that mobile messaging apps have already begun overtaking other channels. Use of mobile messaging applications among consumers aged 13 to 24 is more than triple that of adults over 45 years old, according to a report from App Annie.

Nevertheless, the ongoing strength of email with teenagers and Millennials is a boon to email marketers.

At 80 million strong, Millennials represent a quarter of the U.S. population. Larger than the Baby Boomer generation in terms of just sheer population, Millennials are expected to have a majority share in the American economy within the next decade.

Beginning in 2017, U.S. Millennials are expected to have a buying power of $200 billion annually, surpassing $10 trillion within their lifetimes, according to Barkley’s Millennial research.