How businesses are innovating with the millennial in mind
The internet has changed everything. E-commerce companies really started to explode in the late 1990s thanks to eBay and Amazon and since then there’s been no signs of slowing down. As the ecommerce industry began breaking molds, the millennial generation was beginning to grow up experiencing these advancements.
Creating an “I want it now” world
For millennials, the world is changing to suit their needs. Don’t believe me? Amazon is a PRIME example. Pun intended. The millennials’ demand for instant results is fueling innovation and customized consumer experiences. Amazon Go is an initiative where Amazon members can walk into a shop, grab their juice and bagel and walk out of the store. Amazon has eliminated every impatient millennials’ biggest annoyance — checkout lines. They don’t wait in line. They have services to either tell them when to show up or to drop products inside of their home.
Millennials have pioneered the declarative generation. When a millennial says, “I want coffee.” They get it immediately. Amazon Echo has catered to this declarative mindset. The owner can audibly command the device to play music, share the temperature outside, send a message or order an Uber.
It wasn’t too long ago a customer would order from a catalogue and wait for the product to arrive during the 7–14 days delivery window. Or maybe they would spend a few hours browsing racks at a retail store. In today’s fast-paced, hyper-connected world millennials live in the moment and want everything provided instantaneously. Amazon Prime Now has shaved off waiting time by offering a two-hour delivery window on a variety of products.
AI, a millennial’s best friend?
If you want to gain and keep a millennial’s loyalty, you need to leverage real-time services. As millennials are mobilized in greater numbers in the workplace, they will soon take over boomers in earnings and become the most influential shoppers. Millennials ability to wait is diminishing as their desire for real-time results is increasing.
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to machines which use real-time data to learn and interpret the world around us in an intelligent, humanistic way. Consider bluetooth beacons, devices that retailers use to push notifications and discounts directly to shoppers’ smartphones when they are in close proximity to a store. BI Intelligence expects the beacon installed base to swell from 96,000 in 2015 to 3.5 million in 2018. Millennial shoppers are glued to their smartphones and this is one way to engage them and offer instant personalized discounts.
Millennials are not only in favor of personalized discounts in-store, but are open to drone delivery right to their doorstep. According to the survey from the United States Postal Service (USPS), millennials had an optimistic attitude toward drone delivery services. In fact, nearly two-thirds said they liked the idea of them, at least somewhat. It’s a good thing because Amazon plans to deliver customers’ orders within 30 minutes through its Prime Air delivery program, which exceeds its two-day Prime shipping and two-hour Prime Now deliveries. This could accelerate the growth of online retail sales, encourage more online shopping and feed the millennial need for instant gratification.
The millennial generation is massive. The world they live in is one of automation and abundance and businesses are innovating with the millennial in mind.
