This report from Forrester provides a demographic profile of online baby boomers (a cohort of online consumers aged between 44 and 64). Currently, there are 64.8 million baby boomers online, representing 37% of the overall online population in the US. In the North American Technographics Benchmark Survey, 2009 online consumers were asked about their technology and shopping behaviour, online activities and general attitudes.
Highlights from the survey:
Online baby boomers are more likely to be employed and financially stable. 73% are married and 27% have children younger than 18 years old in the household, compared with 58% and 35% for the overall online population, respectively. Fifty-nine percent are employed full-time, and 16% hold managerial and other professional occupations, in contrast to 51% who are employed full-time and 12% who hold managerial occupations among all online users. Also due to their age, boomers have much higher household income levels compared with the overall US online population: 42% of online boomers have incomes of more than $100,000 per year, while only 29% of the total online population do.
Online baby boomers are comfortable with using the Internet, but they still fall behind younger cohorts when it comes to the frequency and variety of online activities. With stronger spending power they are just as likely to purchase products and services online as overall online users; however, boomers spent $150 more, on average, on their online purchases during the three months prior to this survey compared with all other age groups.
Two-thirds of online baby boomers use search engines on a monthly basis, which is the most popular online activity for this online population segment. Half of the boomers also research products for purchase and 43% purchase products online monthly or more frequently. Online boomers are on par with the Gen X group (ages 30 to 43) when it comes to product research and purchases, but they outpace Gen Y and Seniors by as many as nine percentage points.
Boomers use the Internet for social and communication activities much less. Sending and receiving photos by email, tracking the status of orders or packages, using yellow pages or local search, and signing up for free products and coupons are among the online activities that are less popular with online baby boomers. Activities popular with Gen X and Gen Y groups, such as viewing and posting on photo sharing Web sites, viewing and posting general classifieds, and using job boards, only garner usage by about one-tenth of the online boomers.
This report is available to current London Business School staff, students and faculty from the Forrester database located on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal.
Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: LuMaxArt
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