Millennial & Gen Z Expectations at Checkout

More than half of the nation’s population is now millennial or younger¹, and as a result, millennial and Gen Z purchasing power has grown to a whopping $165 billion combined². These generations will dictate the future of payments, and the findings are clear - they want and expect alternative payment methods that are mobile, transparent, frictionless, and rewarding.

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According to PaySafe Group, younger consumers are much more likely to embrace a wider range of payment methods than their older counterparts. This can be attributed to the fact that many millennials and Gen Z consumers are very comfortable with and open to using alternative payment methods. However, they’ve also been excluded from traditional financial services products³ such as credit cards, and at the same time are wary of spending money they don’t have.

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Credit Card Alternatives

When browsing some of the most popular food delivery, shopping, and travel websites, credit cards are still the most commonly accepted payment option. This is pretty staggering, considering that 50% of Gen Z and millennials habitually make purchases online using cash or a cash replacement, and 49.7% of millennials and 53% of eligible Gen Z consumers don’t own a credit card⁴!

Debit cards serve as an alternative to credit cards and they are widely accepted, but they usually offer no or low-value rewards. There isn’t much benefit to using this option, except for the fact that it is often the only payment option for some.

Buy-now-pay-later, or BNPL, has increased in popularity over the past few years. Customers can pay for a purchase in 4 bi-weekly installments, which can help to alleviate cash flow constraints. However, BNPL is typically used for purchases $100 and above and isn’t suitable for high-frequency purchases.

Venmo is becoming more widely accepted on food delivery and shopping websites, but many view it as a pure peer-to-peer payment platform to pay friends. Additionally, customers do not earn any rewards when they pay with Venmo, and merchant fees can be as high as 5%!

Enter Zage. Zage cuts out the payments intermediaries to enable a magical and seamless experience for consumers, while significantly reducing merchant processing fees. By building a rewards program that is fun, memorable, and keeps customers coming back, merchants can improve margins and customer loyalty amongst a very important group of consumers.

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Conclusion

Millennials and Gen Z comprise a large portion of your customer base and will dictate the future of how they want to shop and pay. By offering Zage as a payment option on your website, you can meet your customers where they are, and increase customer loyalty while reducing costs as a result!

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Want to learn more? Contact Zage today!

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Sources:

1. Census Bureau
2. Wunderman Thompson
3. Paysafe Group
4. MyBank Tracker