Shining the Light on Hispanic Millennials

The Hispanic Millennial is a powerful consumer group, so what do retailers need to know about their shopping habits?

With Hispanic Millennials being the second largest Hispanic cohort living in the U.S, it's easy to understand why retailers benefit from understanding their shopping needs and habits.  According to a new study, Latinos are independent shoppers who spend more money on groceries than other group.

The new study is called the Hispanic Millennial Project. With joint research from ThinkNow Research and Sensis, it's designed to gain a deeper understanding of Hispanic millennials, comparing their habits to non-Latino millennials and older Latinos.

So what's important to the Hispanic Millennial shoppers? According to the report, 66 percent of Hispanic millennials indicated that culture and heritage impacts their purchasing "some" or "a lot."  57 percent believe that sugar is healthy. 74 percent of Hispanic Millennials do all or most of households' grocery shopping (compared to 78 percent of non-Hispanic white millennials), 80 percent use recipes, 39 percent rarely or never use coupons and Hispanic millennials spend the most on groceries ($149/week). 

Another highlight from the report was that Hispanic millennials use food and beverage to connect to cultural roots (56 percent). According to data, familial heritage drives preference. Overall, Hispanic millennials consider themselves "foodies" and Hispanic millennials lead the way in terms of ingredients and how they're sourced. 

Research like this is important for supermarkets as they work to appeal to the Hispanic millennial. Target recently launched a new ad campaign designed for Latino shoppers, called "#SinTraduccion," or "Without Translation" — the company's first Latino-focused effort, rather than merely translating general market advertising. Like Target, it's time for retailers to make a more focused effort to appeal to the Hispanic shopper and take note of their habits and preferences.