5 Online Shopping Trends for Parents
Online shopping has revolutionized the retail world, affecting all demographics of shoppers. From millennials to the elderly, many of us are leaving in-person retail stores for making our purchases from our favorite brands online. However, one demographic in particular that deserves special attention is parents.
Parents pride themselves on ensuring their children have what they need to live happy and healthy lives. As a business, you want to ensure you’re providing that service to them. From tech for parents, such as iPads and shows for entertainment, to having groceries delivered to their door, parents do a lot of their shopping online. If you’re wondering how you can better appeal to parents and even their children, here’s what you should know about their online shopping behavior.
Parents are shopping digitally
Parents today grew up in the age of the internet. These parents are technologically savvy, and it makes sense that they’d make many of their purchases online. Online shopping is convenient and can give time back to busy parents who maybe can’t make it to the store in person. Not only are they making purchases online, but parents, along with other consumer groups are completing retail transactions directly from their phones.
If you run a business that offers products for parents, ensure you’re optimizing your online store and simplifying the checkout process. Parents want to be able to find information on the products and companies they’re considering purchasing from, so you’ll want to ensure you have a strong brand reputation and online presence to appeal to these conscious consumers. Make it easy for your customers and potential buyers to find information about your different products, and notify them of restocks, sales, and bundles that appeal to their shopping preferences and behavior.
Finding new brands via social media
Since so many retail purchases are completed online, many consumers turn to social media to find companies they want to support and purchase from. Parents want to feel like the products they’re purchasing for their children are from brands they align with morally. So preach your business’s values and exciting news and share it on your social media profiles. Engaging with your audience online through social media is a great way to introduce people to your brand and hopefully bring them back to your website where they can learn more and even make a purchase.
Optimizing your omnichannel marketing efforts means offering quality support across all the different channels users can make purchases on, connecting purchases across various channels to a single user, and improving your return policy and process to online customers. In addition, you should ensure you’re aligning your marketing campaigns on the different social media platforms with your buyer persona and interacting with your followers and audience.
They’re looking to save time
We mentioned earlier that parents are quite busy and they’re always looking for ways to put some time back onto their schedule. While online shopping takes away the time spent at a store, they also look for products to make their lives easier.
If your business primarily focuses on products for parents, consider adding an inventory of products that offer convenience to them. Products such as crafts for kids to enjoy, child-proofing tech, toys, learning programs, and more all work to provide convenience and relief to parents.
Their children help them shop
It’s no secret that children influence many of their parent’s purchases. While children aren’t making purchases themselves, they are the ‘influencers’ to their parents, and a product appealing to a child has the potential to lead to a conversion completed by their parents. This means when a product goes viral amongst a younger demographic, it can lead to purchases from their parents.
For example, last year and this year have proven the buying power amongst younger markets. As we saw ‘weighted blankets’ go viral amongst younger online demographics, more and more of these products were added to shopping carts and purchased for kids. And these purchases did not go unnoticed. Soon after these blankets began to trend in older markets as well, showing that younger consumers have a lot of influence over their parents.
As children age, many parents will send money to their children or set up an online bank account to filter funds for chores or a college fund. With some buying power, children and teenagers have the power to make purchases themselves, furthering their influence in the retail market. So if your business provides products for parents and children, you’ll want to create marketing campaigns and style guides that appeal to both markets.
Parents love a good subscription
Subscription services offer a lot of convenience and variability for consumers. While original subscription boxes may have been for groceries, you can now find subscription services for just about anything. As a parent, there are many things you’ll need to provide everything your child will need. From food to entertainment and everything in between, children require thought and planning from their parents.
The good news is that there are many subscription services for parents. From meal kit services to arts and crafts, as well as science experiments delivered right to your door, many services can improve the quality of life for both parents and children. Studies have shown that almost half of households with children are enrolled in some sort of subscription box service, proving how lucrative this business model can be amongst this demographic.
In conclusion
Both parents and their children need a lot of things, but they aren’t willing to just purchase from any business. The parents of the modern world are active online and will find many of the businesses they love through online browsing. From a business perspective, you want to do what you can to ensure your business aligns with its customers as well as ensure you’re effectively marketing and appealing to this demographic. With these points in mind, you can ensure your products are appealing to parents and offer them the service they need in their life.