Millennials regularly 'game' ecommerce to snag discounts

It seems that digitally-savvy Millennials are applying their knowledge in unexpected ways when shopping online, in order to get themselves better deals and prices.

Research from media agency Mindshare North America has revealed that about a quarter of Millennials admitted faking their birthday when signing up to newsletters in a bid to receive a discount, compared with 17% of adult across the wider population.

Just under half (versus 37% of all adults) intentionally left items in a shopping cart in the hope of getting a discount, while three out of five (versus 48% of all adults) tried to buy travel tickets on days they believed that prices would be lower.

A huge seven out of 10 Millennials also scoured the internet for promo codes before buying anything online (compared with 59% of all adults), although the downside was that just under two thirds felt as if they were always waiting to buy something because they knew it would go on sale eventually (versus 52% of all adults).

Joe Migliozzi, managing director of Mindshare North America and head of its New York-based digital and shop+ business, said that consumers were growing savvier and savvier in their online shopping habits every day.

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing for retailers – it’s a different kind of engagement. But brands do need to understand this shift in behaviour and adapt their marketing plans in creative ways,” he added.

Other tricks played include:

• Sharing an Amazon Prime account with friends to get free shipping (36% of Generation Y compared to 24% of all adults).
• Using multiple email addresses but setting one up specifically to focus on online shopping (36% of Millennials versus 30% of all adults).
• Clearing internet histories to keep flight costs down (31% of Generation Y compared to 23% of all adults).
• Stripping out Google search history activity to get the best prices (39% of Millennials versus 31% of all adults).

As for major gripes, 58% of Millennials respondents (versus 49% of all adults) complained that their email boxes were too full of promotional messages from stores that they had shopped at in the past. Just under seven out of ten Millennials also found it annoying to be bombarded with continual adverts for products they had looked for on a previous date.