Don't treat them as old

eMarketer, 6/3/08

Abstract:
Seniors are a large, underserved but potentially lucrative consumer segment. To unlock their spending power, Web retailers need to understand their special needs and aspirations—as well as the friction points that discourage them from becoming online buyers.

In 2006, there were 17.6 million Internet users in the US ages 62 and older. By 2011 that number will increase to 25.4 million. That is a 7.6% average annual growth rate—more than twice the 3.1% growth rate eMarketer forecasts for the entire US Internet population.

A demographic profile of seniors from the Focalyst and Dynamic Logic report, "Matures 62+ On the Internet: An Overlooked Audience," reveals that online seniors are a lucrative consumer segment that Web retailers cannot afford to ignore. Their income is more than double that of their non-Internet cohorts. Moreover, one-quarter of online seniors still work and draw a salary. They also spend more on household expenditures, an average of $1,754 per month, versus $1,059 for non-Internet seniors.

"One of the things about marketing to seniors is that they don't view themselves as old, and they don't want to be treated as old," Nataki Clarke, director of online marketing at AARP, told the ECommerce-Guide. "There are still many people who are active and vibrant into their sixties and seventies."

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