Confidence Ticks Upward

Ann-Marie Vazzano

Consumer confidence is up among all age groups, according to IRI’s recent MarketPulse survey, especially among Millennials, who were one of the hardest-hit groups during the economic downturn.

Although shoppers don’t feel they have to sacrifice as much to make ends meet today, they’re still practicing conservative shopping strategies, the report says, meaning they’re on the hunt for deals. The survey found that 70% of savvy consumers make a shopping list before they enter a store and 75% make their purchase decisions before entering the store—numbers that haven’t changed since 2011.

Nearly 20% of all consumers and more than one-quarter of Millennials have difficulty affording groceries today. One-third of all consumers and 40% of Millennials are buying more than half of their purchases on sale. Nearly 20% of all consumers and one-quarter of Millennials say they’re buying more on sale in 2014 than in 2013. Some other key findings:

• 29% download coupons from retailers’ websites
• 29% download coupons from manufacturers’ websites
• 25% research products on websites
• 19% visit online deal sites, such as Groupon or SmartSource
• 11% use social media sites to get coupons GP