Consumer Decision-making Style of Gen Z: A Generational Cohort Analysis

The media and consumer research groups have been keeping the Millennials in spotlight for many years now; perhaps it is time to turn some of the attention on Gen Z, which began its foray into mainstream consumption. This exploratory study examines the shopping orientation of Gen Z online shoppers using the generational cohort theory (GCT) as a framework and provides insights to e-retailers to understand how this generation approaches the online shopping. The penetration of Internet and accelerated growth of online shopping have enthused the e-retailers to offer a wide range of goods at greater efficiency than the traditional players. By cluster analysis (K-means) of nine online shopping orientation factors (two were eliminated prior due to low factor loading scores), four segments were identified: (a) 'Economic-quality seekers', (b) 'Convenience shoppers', (c) 'Deal hunting-convenience seekers' and (d) 'Brand and quality conscious shoppers', and the study profiled each segment based on the demographic data through chi-square analysis. Finally, implications for online retailers and marketing practitioners are enumerated towards the end of the article.