Commentary

Amazon's Horoscope: Younger Shoppers Want To Spend Less There

The news broke last weekend that Amazon will allow merchants in its Brand Registry to send emails to customers who follow their brands.  

Some observers say this is a move to strengthen it against Shopify. And others may note that Amazon already offered a service called Amazon Attribution to help brands measure the performance of non-Amazon channels such as email, video and display. 

The bigger question is: Just where does Amazon stand these days? 

Two new studies attempt to answer that in different ways. For one, Sitecore found that 40% of U.S. shoppers would like to reduce the amount of shopping they do on Amazon.  

In addition, consumers feel guilty about the shopping they do there, including 43% of Gen Z and 43% of Gen Z, 37% of Millennials and 34% of Gen X. However, 86% of boomers feel no such guilt.

Why should younger consumers feel guilty? Perhaps because they are shopping too much -- 35% of Gen Z, 49% of Millennials, 40% of Gen X and 17% of Baby Boomers order from Amazon at least once a week.

Here’s the threat to Amazon: 53% of Gen Z shoppers, 49% of Millennials, 36% of Gen Zers and 25% of boomers are were found to be the most eager to cut back. Of the Gen Zers surveyed, 41% say they would move to retailers that provide the same purchase experience as Amazon.  

What could be driving this switch? Among the respondents, 21% cite low quality goods, 21% better choices from other merchants and 12% the desire to support other retailers. Then there’s this: 70% of Gen Z and Millennials report that some brands created a deeper connection with them through their online experience this year. 

Finally, 72% of consumers overall plan to return to in-person shopping.

While Amazon saw strong increases during the pandemic, “the tide is turning,” states Paige O’Neill, chief marketing officer, Sitecore.

O’Neill says there is “a desire from our younger generations to move away from the giant, in favor of other retailers.” But O’Neill warns that brands must provide “strong digital commerce experiences to capitalize on the Amazon fatigue.”  

Working with Sitecore, Advanis surveyed 2,142 U.S. consumers between March 30 and April 8, 2021. Included were 1,061 in the 18-24 age cohort. 

Whatever these findings, have no fears for Amazon: Jungle Scout’s 2021 Amazon Advertising Report shows that 74% of consumers start their product searches on Amazon’s “Everything Store.” 

In contrast, 66% begin their product searches on search engines such as Google or Bing, and 38% on individual retailers’ websites. And 33% use Facebook for this purpose. 

Moreover, 56% say that if they could shop only in a signal store, it would be Amazon. 

And 37% state that they increasing their online spending, although it is lower than normal.

When conducting searches, consumers prefer these ad products:

  • Organic listing — 40%
  • Sponsored product ad in search result — 22%
  • Sponsored display ads — 14% 
  • Sponsored product ads (on a product listing) — 14%
  • Sponsored brand ads — 10%

Jungle Scout analyzed over 560,000 ad campaigns and 3,500 brands.

The report is also based on data from Downstream, an analytics platform recently added to the Jungle Scout suite.

Also featured in the report is data from Jungle Scout’s 2021 Q1 Consumer Trends study.

 

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