Hope for Fears About Technology

Extend a hand of hope to consumers. A multinational survey indicates that a substantial number of them are worried about just the types of technology which can enable you to operate more profitably as a retailer. A MediaPost commentary noted that the fears were sharpest among the young adults called Millennials, Gen Y, or Echo Boomers by consumer researchers. Millennials are prime target markets for many retailers.
     The “Digital Life” survey, sponsored by Euro RSCG and conducted by Market Probe International, covered 19 countries, with a total of over 7,000 respondents. Millennials were defined as those between ages 18 and 34. About 51% of the overall sample consisted of Millennials, with an approximately equal balance between males and females.

• More than one out of four of the respondents, and about one out of three Millennials, said social networking is making them less satisfied with their lives. In some cases, the reason given was envy, and envy can become a shopper motivation. But the underlying theme was a pessimism about technology in general. About 42% of the respondents said it’s too soon to tell if digital technologies will have a negative effect on the world. 
• About half the number of respondents said they’re concerned digital technologies are impairing consumers’ critical thinking skills, and about two-thirds said that, with the overabundance of information available via digital technologies, people are losing the ability to prioritize. Unscrupulous retailers might view such dumbing down of consumers as wonderful openings to mislead. But such tactics, even if effective in the short-term, would come back to haunt a retailer who plans to stay open in town for a while. 
• Consumers overall felt that the digital technologies hand extended by retailers toward them is now too often not to invite supportive contact, but instead to exploit the consumer. The Millennials had particular concerns about how hard retailers push consumers to surrender privacy when using digital technologies. 

     For you, the opportunities from all this are to reach out to consumers with hope, optimism, and a genuine desire to create a sense of community. Research findings from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut and Providence College in Rhode Island indicate that a retailer should state to customers what information you’d like to gather about them, how you’ll be using the information to make their individual shopping experiences more efficient and fruitful, and how you will safeguard the security of that information.

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