Capitalizing on the smarter consumer, IBM Institute for Business Value, July 2012

• “The consumer is digital. Smarter consumers take technology completely for granted. Nearly half the people we surveyed are eager to use two or more technologies to shop. Younger consumers are particularly keen – and teenage “twitterati” have now escaped the parental leash.
• The household is “virtual.” Many consumers are shopping for a much wider range of family members, as the number of mutigenerational households rises. Thanks to the Internet, consumers can easily shop for adult parents who may or may not live nearby.
• Incomes and shopping attitudes are diverging. Between a fifth and a quarter of all consumers search for sale goods and only buy what they need, no matter how affluent they are or how optimistic they feel about their financial future.”