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What Boomer Women Want - New Rules for Retailing to these Harried Customers

Guest post by: Jeff Mowatt

Article Overview: When it comes to retailing, it's easy to get distracted by the hype about selling to the upcoming Millennials (twenty somethings) or Gen Xers (thirty somethings). Fine if your products are meant for these groups, but if your target-market is Baby-Boomer women, you'll need to operate quite differently from the current practices of most retailers...

What Boomer Women Want - New Rules for Retailing to these Harried Customers

When it comes to retailing, it's easy to get distracted by the hype about selling to the upcoming Millennials (twenty somethings) or Gen Xers (thirty somethings). Fine if your products are meant for these groups, but if your target-market is Baby-Boomer women, you'll need to operate quite differently from the current practices of most retailers. The good news is you'll likely be richly rewarded. Baby-Boom women (aged late 40s to early 60s) represent not only a massive portion of the North American population, but one that will inherit more wealth over the next decade. The challenge for retailers targeting Boomers is this group is becoming fed-up with the hassle-factor of typical retail shopping.

Boomer women are busier than ever. They spend most of their waking hours working/commuting and dealing with their Millennial children who don't appear to ever want move away the concierge service they receive at home. At the same time Boomer women are caring for aging parents. They're run ragged. In today's soft economy they may not be buying luxury; but they're still buying quality. The implications for retailers targeting this group are several fold:

• Reduce the hassle-factor for your Boomer women customers. Offer easy on-line ordering. Offer to gift-wrap. Offer that you'll put together custom baskets of your goods and ship anywhere for them. Don't wait to be asked to do this; pro-actively announce it (pick up the phone and start dialing during your slow periods). Your customers' money is plentiful. Their time and energy is scarce.

• Don't offer cheap novelties that will end up in garage sales. Sell unique products that provide real quality and lasting value.

• Hire mature employees who can relate to your target market... not students who have no interest in the products they're trying to sell.

Bottom line - your business can't be all things to all people. Targeting Millennials and Gen Xers and Boomers is attracting none. Pick a lane. Forget trying to go cheap to be affordable to young people... price-wise you'll never beat Wal-Mart or China. Be a specialist providing quality and remark-able customer service that your target market actually appreciates and is willing to pay for.

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Article Tags: baby boomers, gen xers, hype, millennials, shopping preferences, targetmarket, thirty somethings, women



Related Forum Posts
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Strategis Listing - Hi Boomer - how have you found the Strategis listing working for you? Whch site do you find you get the most hits from for your directories?
Re: History of Women in Business in the United States - Yes. Women have increasingly made positive economic contributions to society and their position is being recognized more and more as seen on the Forbes List of Executive Women. In general, women can be a bit more practical in their approach as entrepreneurs too.
How She Does It - Interesting to see what are the most popular threads in this folder, judging by how many hits each thread gets. There must be a lot of moms out there who want to start businesses. I'm currently reading How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs are Changing the Rules of Business Success, by Margaret Heffernan. Some interesting statistics: Between 1997 and 2006, privately held businesses owned by women grew at 3 times the rate of all American privately owned firms, women's companies are creating jobs and growing profits at twice the rate of all firms and are responsible for more payroll than all of the Fortune 500 companies combined. This book tells the stories of a few women who have made it big...recommended reading so you know that "you can do it, too."
Books for Women Entrepreneurs - There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here. It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new. In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment! 1. The Old Girl's Network 2. Mother's Work 3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women 4. Pitch Like A Girl 5. Workplace Warrior 6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer 7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery 8. She Wins, You Win 9. Napoleon On Project Management 10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do 11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years 12. The One Minute Millionaire 13. Talking From 9 to 5 14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions 15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success 16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded 17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful 18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End 19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide 20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen 21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business 22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker 23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business 24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises 25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy 26. The Promotable Woman 27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it 28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home 29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women


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