Exploring Shopper Psychographic Characteristics From a Human Ecosystem Perspective: A Proposed Typology of Millennial Luxury Consumers

Abstract

An enhanced understanding of millennial luxury consumers is needed for luxury retailers to develop loyalty strategies and foster business success. Guided by the human ecosystem framework, the objective of this research was to classify millennial luxury consumers into a shopper typology based on shopper psychographic characteristics to provide an understanding of their shopping motivations and behaviors regarding luxury goods. Two studies were conducted. Semistructured interviews of millennial luxury consumers in Study 1, analyzed through interpretive analysis, resulted in 11 major themes or shopper psychographic characteristics. An online survey to a larger sample of millennial luxury consumers in Study 2 was then employed. Reliability and validity testing confirmed the 11 psychographic characteristics and latent profile analyses revealed a four-class shopper typology. Findings provide retail industry executives with in-depth information on customer profiles which includes shopping and product preferences, motivations, and customer expectations that was previously absent in the literature.