Zillennials — the 39.3 million consumers born between 1991 and 1999 — are shaping digital trends in banking, dining and entertainment. The behavior of this generation, spanning older Generation Z and younger millennial consumers, reveals distinct preferences for the convenience of mobile apps and third-party platforms, setting it apart from older generations.
As the digital landscape evolves and zillennials’ spending power grows, understanding how these consumers engage across various activities is crucial. PYMNTS Intelligence research, drawn from a survey of 67,024 consumers in 11 countries, delves into zillennials’ digital participation in all parts of their day-to-day routines. The findings offer insights into the future of consumers’ digital behavior.
Zillennials Are Digitally Engaged Across All Aspects of Their Lives
Zillennials are far more digitally engaged in all parts of their day-to-day routines than the average consumer across generations. However, there are two major areas in particular in which they participate digitally more than any other age bracket: banking and dining.
In banking, 55% of zillennials engage digitally at least once a week, compared to 45% of consumers overall. Meanwhile, in dining, 40% of zillennials order digitally from eateries at least weekly. Only 24% of consumers across generations engage with restaurants in this way.
Zillennials are highly plugged in when it comes to their leisure time as well. In fact, 59% participate in digital activities related to having fun at least weekly. This is well above the 45% population-wide average and only slightly below the 61% of Gen Z consumers who do so.
This high level of engagement with technology can be seen across categories. Half of zillennials engage in digital communication activities at least weekly, versus just 39% of the whole sample. Nearly one-third of zillennials shop for retail digitally just as often, compared to 21% of the whole sample. In grocery shopping, 28% of zillennials engage digitally at least every week, compared to 18% of the sample.
When it comes to work, zillennials’ weekly digital participation of 44% exceeds that of the overall sample by a considerable 14%. Interestingly, however, zillennials’ digital engagement at work is slightly less than that of older millennials and younger Gen Z consumers, at 45% each.
As far as wellness, zillennials are also less connected than younger Gen Z consumers but more than consumers overall. Specifically, 28% of zillennials engage in digital wellness activities at least weekly, versus 32% of Gen Z. Still, this is well above the 18% average across generations.
Zillennials Seek Out the Most Convenient Digital Options
In the categories where zillennials lead in digital adoption, these consumers look for the most convenient ways to participate. They like the ease of mobile apps and third-party marketplaces.
Take banking. Zillennials prefer to engage using mobile apps on their smartphones rather than navigating banks’ websites on PCs or laptops. Six in 10 of these consumers engage in mobile banking at least weekly, while only 51% engage in online banking. That is, members of this generation are 19% likelier to bank digitally via mobile apps than through their web browsers.
That disparity is even larger than it is for younger consumers. Gen Zers are 16% likelier to engage via app, with 54% doing so compared to 47% engaging via browser.
Older consumers, meanwhile, favor the familiarity of banks’ websites. Specifically, 34% of baby boomers engage in online banking via web browser at least weekly. Conversely, a moderately lower 31% bank via mobile apps as often.
Similarly, zillennials are also convenience seekers when it comes to restaurants. They prefer the one-stop shopping ease of using third-party delivery aggregators over seeking out individual restaurants’ direct ordering platforms. In this category, however, the gap is considerably smaller.
While 41% of these consumers order from aggregators at least weekly, 39% do so from restaurants’ websites or apps. As such, zillennials are 5.7% likelier to make purchases from restaurant aggregators at least once a week than from restaurants’ own platforms.
Conversely, Gen X consumers and baby boomers favor eateries’ own sites and apps when engaging with restaurants digitally. Gen X diners are 3.4% more likely to order directly from restaurants than to purchase from third parties, and baby boomers are 14% more likely to do so.
Top Digital Activities: Entertainment, Banking and Restaurants
When it comes to specific activities, there are five in which zillennials are the most digitally engaged generation. These are video streaming, mobile banking, using gaming consoles, engaging delivery aggregators and ordering directly from restaurants’ platforms.
Video streaming is zillennials’ top activity for digital engagement across both generations and geography. Nearly three-quarters — 73% — of these consumers across surveyed countries stream videos at least weekly. However, Australian zillennials lead them all. In the Land Down Under, the share of this generation engaging in digital streaming skyrockets to 84%. Spanish zillennials are the next-most apt to stream videos, at 77%.
Mobile banking is zillennials’ second-favorite form of digital engagement. As noted earlier, 60% of these consumers engage in this activity overall. However, the country-by-country variation is significant. For instance, only 13% of zillennials in Japan engage in mobile banking at least once a week. That figure surges to 81% in Australia and 78% in the Netherlands.
Next up, nearly half — 48% — of these young consumers overall use gaming consoles to play games at least weekly. French zillennials are the biggest gamers, at 52%, while those in Japan again trail, at 32%. This relatively lower engagement may run counter to what one would expect from the country that brought us Nintendo and Sony. However, it is consistent with the broader trend of Japanese zillennials being less digitally plugged in across categories.
On-demand delivery aggregators come in fourth on zillennials’ list of top digital activities, with 41% using these services at least once a week. Again, though, this figure varies considerably from country to country. For example, the share rises to 50% for those in Brazil and 57% for those in Singapore. Conversely, only 10% of zillennials in Japan engage digitally with these services.
Finally, 39% of zillennials order directly from restaurants’ websites or apps. Again, those in Brazil and Singapore do so the most often, at 46% and 47%, respectively. Also again, Japanese zillennials prove far and away the least digitally engaged in this activity, at just 11%.
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The PYMNTS Intelligence Zillennials MonitorEdge Report Series delves into the behaviors and preferences of this microgeneration. Continue reading to discover how they pay and what drives their purchasing decisions.
