The Millennial Path to Purchase: Household Products

In the latest installment of the millennial shopper deep dive, we break down the household products path to purchase.  From the motivations that trigger a shopping trip to the actual purchase and eventual restart of the cycle.  This is the latest in our millennial shopper series, where we also cover food and beverages, and personal care & beauty, and shopping

Routines & Prep

Millennials are the most likely to say they purchase household goods when they run out.  But it’s important to note that other top catalysts are all routine behaviors: stocking-up and going on regular shopping trips.

Other than food & non-alcoholic beverages, household product trips involve the most pre-store planning. Before going shopping for household goods, millennial shoppers make lists, take inventory, and talk to others in the house. More millennials engage in these analogue routines than digital ones.

Graph of Activities before Millennial Shopping Trips

Engage them In-Store

Despite the prevalence of smartphones, millennials shoppers most often turn to in-store activities like price and product comparisons. They’re are also the most likely to actually enjoy browsing for products while in store relative to older segments.  Millennials are ideal recipients of shelf-level engagement.

Almost all household product purchases primarily take place in person, across both cleaning supplies and paper products. However, millennials are essentially equally likely to purchase household products online as they are the top two online categories of clothing and personal care & beauty.

Graph of Millennial Shopping Habits

Almost half of millennials – 43% – will settle for alternative household product brands if they already have one in mind when they get to the store and it’s not available.  This is one of the largest shares across category, only marginally beaten out by staple items like food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Please complete the form below to receive additional information from Collage Group.

Skip to content