Retailers Pursue Older Shoppers

NEW YORK CITY-People over 60 years old are becoming the most important consumers in the country, and retailers need to attract their attention if they want to reap the benefits. That was speakers’ message on Sunday here at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & Expo at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

One formula is to cater to the different lifestyles and desires of over-60 shoppers instead of lumping them into one category defined by age, says Gretchen Addi, a senior executive at Palo Alto, CA-based design firm Ideo. “Forget the numbers; the numbers don’t mean anything,” she says. “Age is not the indicator, so you might as well throw it out the window.”

The number of people over 60 has tripled since 1950, and for the first time in history, that age group will equal those below 15 years old, says Pat Conroy, national managing principal of accounting firm Deloitte & Touche’s consumer business practice. The $1.7 trillion that people over 50 spend annually is half of all spending in the country, he says.