Millennial preferences for converting in brick-and-mortar stores have shifted, even though stores are still part of the preferred path to purchase for 61% of shoppers. Overall, 35% of respondents in 2019 said they preferred to make purchases in stores, down from 48% in 2017.
“Millennials have always been more digitally inclined when it comes to shopping, so it’s surprising to see their buying behaviors shift so dramatically,” said eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman. “But it can be explained, at least in part, by the emergence of D2C brands. As these brands become more popular, digital-only purchases are likely to increase. And as brands increasingly open brick-and-mortar locations—many of which function as shoppable billboards—they will drive more offline-to-online shopping engagements.”
But this digital-only shopping behavior should be taken with a grain of salt, as other research suggests that millennials are still spending substantially offline. For purchases averaging more than $100, US millennials are less likely to be strictly digital—45.8% of respondents said they preferred to do their research online, but to buy in-store, according to a September 2018 survey from Roth Capital Partners. By comparison, 21.8% of respondents said they preferred to exclusively buy digitally.