Baby boomers, not Millenials, most comfortable shopping CPG online

DENVER — Shoppers ages 50 to 54 years lead the charge when it comes to purchasing health and beauty products online (52%), and shoppers ages 45 to 49 years are purchasing more food and beverage products online (29%) than any other age group, according to The Checkout, an ongoing shopper behavior study conducted by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research, released Thursday.

All age groups showed an increase in shopping online, with an overall increase in shopping in general — in contrast to The Checkout's results from last year, which showed 73% of shoppers who were buying more online were not shopping more, they were just shopping differently.

Last year, The Checkout also showed that baby boomers were the largest group of shoppers purchasing consumer-packaged goods products online (health, beauty, food, beverage). Both reports indicated that other age groups still aren't sold on the idea of doing standard grocery shopping online, stating that their barriers for purchasing these goods online are product expiration dates and shipping costs.

"Grocery shopping online is a concept most shoppers have yet to adopt, which means there are conventions ingrained in their shopping behavior that must be disrupted," stated Craig Elston, SVP of Integer. "Manufacturers and e-tailers have the most to gain if they can help shoppers get over their purchase barriers."

The Checkout is available for download here following a free registration.