JupiterResearch says that younger consumers under the age of 35 are developing different payment habits than adults over 35.
In their new report “Payment Preferences Online: Managing the Generation Gap Between Mature and Young Adults” they found that younger adults are responsible for much of the usuage of PayPal and debit cards for online purchases.
The study found that 48 percent of consumers ages 25 to 34 favored using debit cards for Internet transactions, as compared to just 39 percent of all online consumers.
Thirty-four percent of online consumers ages 18 to 24 prefer PayPal or a similar service
“As younger adults expand in proportion to the workforce, their earnings and overall capacity to purchase will also increase. This will solidify the most durable of their different payment preferences, “said Edward Kountz, Senior Analyst at JupiterResearch.
“This trend will require payment-product issuers to develop marketing and product strategies to meet the payment desires and changing values of younger adults. This will include card features tailored to younger adults’ lifestyle needs, and marketing efforts that embrace emerging social media.”
The reason for the difference in payment habits between younger and mature consumers is because the introduction of the Internet, maturation of PayPal and similar services, debit cards and stored value cards along with mobile phones that younger consumers have been around for most of their lives.
“Beyond modifying today’s most common features and products, issuers and vendors must keep an eye on the emerging data habits of younger adults, and pay special attention to how their payment and data preferences feed into tomorrow’s payment-product and form-factor innovations,” said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch.
“While a critical mass may be hard to achieve for such next-generation innovations over the short-term, leading issuers should seek to establish an early understanding of younger adults’ likes and dislikes with regard to emerging payments services.”
