“My friends and I talk all the time about where we got the best deals and if somebody bought something new. It’s just fun; it’s interesting. And if you meet somebody new it’s a good way to start a conversation, and if you like something they’re wearing then there is a better chance you’ll get a long.” Annie, 21-year old college student in Denver (Gen Buy, p. 48)

 This week, Best Buy announced it is opening a Union Square location that will be open nearly twenty-four hours a day to serve the NYU students and others in the neighborhood.  Can Apple stores, known for being a favorite place for teens and twenty something’s to congregate be far behind?  Indeed, is it too much of a stretch to consider book and electronics stores becoming less like stores and more like nightclubs?  Is someone at Apple thinking about what an Apple bar would look like?

Best Buy’s move would come as no surprise to the authors of Gen Buy, Kit Yarrow and Jayne O’Donnell. They make a convincing argument that for Millennials, shopping is a social activity. It is  ‘the glue, the tie that binds for many member of Gen Y’.

“Whether by shopping in packs at the mall, connecting with each other through what they purchase, or shopping online while IMing friends who are looking at the same site from across town, Gen Years demonstrate their love of teams, groups and real or created families by shopping together.  For girls, the mall is a place to hang out with friends and sort things through. Guys hang out at Best Buy or Apple – or as the more clued in ones say- near girls.”

According to Yarrow and O’Donnell, one of the most universal ways that Gen Y connects is through its passion for shopping and saving.  In our own research, we have seen evidence of young women who have never met before, bonding over cute shoes, sales strategies and the evils of shipping charges. Gen Y’ers in particular seem to be attuned to the language and strategies of shopping. They tell you they ‘LOVE LOVE LOVE’ shopping and then go on to prove it.  Here is some of the evidence provided in Gen Buy that Millennials think of shopping differently, as a way to connect with friends, parents and spouses:  

• “Sixty-eight percent of teens and twenty-something shop with other people at least half the time; only 44 percent of older consumers can say the same, according to our research” (p. 37)
• “Almost 65percent of women age thirteen to twenty-four polled by Cosmo Girl magazine in 2007 agreed with the statement “stores are like friends”. (p. 94)
• “Sixty percent of Gen Yers use advice from their friends when deciding what to buy, and 41 percent say they are influenced by their parents, spouses or sweethearts” (p 45)
• “As teens, Gen Y shoppers spend five times more than their parents did at the same age.”

These statistics suggest an important generational shift.  In one telling incident recounted in the book, a Gen Y employee explained the difference this way: “My boss had to tell me, ‘when I say I’m going to Starbucks that means, what can I bring you?’ but to me, when I say I’m going to Starbucks that means that I’m looking for a group of people to go with me.”

The social shopping phenomenon isn’t limited to in-person shopping, but extends across time and space by the Internet and mobile technology. Gen Y uses technology to research purchases, sometimes on the spot, and to share photos of things they are considering to friends to get their opinions.

Thinking of shopping and purchasing as primarily social activities makes an enormous amount of sense. The ability to provide social currency and facilitate social interaction is driving Millennial trends in everything from social media use to food and wine consumption, so it is reasonable to think of shopping as susceptible to the same forces. 

Thinking of shopping as a social activity provides retailers and other marketers with strong clues about how to engage Gen Y more deeply in their brand experiences. One obvious strategy is to make stores a more attractive place to hangout. Indeed many stores are already responding by providing larger fitting rooms with girlfriend chairs (or increasingly boyfriend’ chairs), better light and music videos. Beyond the stores themselves, retailers should be looking for ways to create a stickier ‘glue’, with ample ways for customers to share and compare their experiences with friends and thereby bind customers more tightly to their brands.