My Gen Y Life

Millennials are a new breed of consumers who are well connected – to their families, friends, and online "communities". They spend time with the people that matter to them, whether virtually, on the phone, or in person. These connections are influential to Millennials at work, home, and in the consumer world.

TV is no longer king
A Forrester.com study on next generation consumer behavior shows that Gen Yers sacrifice watching television to use the internet and other media such as, cell phones, watching DVDs, and playing video games, compared to Gen X and Boomers. I personally find myself jumping for the internet first when I get home from work even though I’ve been staring at a computer screen all day (which probably attributes to my eye fatigue!). If I do turn on the TV it’s usually for background noise or to watch my favorite reality show.

'Friends' opinions matter more
Millennials have so many media messages being thrown at us that the only sane thing to do is to turn to other people like us. Smart retailers like Amazon.com and Target allow shoppers to post reviews of the products online and with mitigation I usually go for the item that got the best reviews. The same goes with shopping for cars or finding a place to stay for a trip. When my husband and I took a trek to Europe for two weeks of backpacking we went to hostelworld.com and narrowed our search for hostels and B&Bs to only include user ratings of 80% or higher. On eBay users get to know sellers not by the traditional name, phone number, and address, but by their ‘personality’ and ratings from other buyers.

Don't underestimate social networking
Getting connected with this generation is less push and more pull. No longer does one-way communication work. Instead you have to tell us "what’s in it for me?", and then we might include you in our comparison process. The result if you can connect with our generation is a very loyal and influential network. Something not to be underestimated.

I love my day job. I review and comment on my company's websites, looking for ways to make the sites more user-friendly and up to design standards. Call it a gift or a curse, but now I look critically at almost every website I encounter. I recently came across possibly the worst website ever, so bad in fact that I refuse to use their services in person anymore.

One evening my DH and I were lounging around the house when we thought it would be a brilliant idea to order pizza online. My laptop was conveniently within arm's reach so we figured it would be easier than getting up to grab the telephone or using our precious cell phone minutes. We typed in www.dominos.com and found what we thought was a really interactive Gen-Y-geared site. They even list 68 creative reasons why you should order online. Homepage is good - engaging, easy buttons, quick.

Once you click on the order page it's a totally different ballgame. First they require you to enter in your full address - not just your city/state or zip code. I don't see why when it just brings up a list of stores to pick from. So you pick one and then it tells you need to sign up. The site doesn't even remember the information you've already given them.

So fine, I enter in my address and my e-mail and proceed to the sixth page of pre-ordering sign-up screens. Then it tells me "Sorry, you're store is not currently available for online ordering." Give me a break! I just gave you all this information about my name, my address, my e-mail, my preferred store location, and all I get is an error screen? Can't you at least give me the number to call my order in? Uggh.

Oh, and if they do serve your area, the site gets even worse. You have to indicate how you will pay (why the heck does it matter when I'm gonna go pick it up) and if you change your mind it will erase your whole order. Bad implementation Domino's!

Note to websites trying to tap into the Gen-Y market - the site better be pretty slick or it could quickly discredit not only your site but your brick-and-mortar store too. We frankly don't have enough time to sit around waiting for slowpokes to figure out technology - we'll go to the place that has.