The differentiation of the US market is first reflected in the population structure and consumption capacity. As early as the 1940s, the United States began to enter an aging society. From 1959 to 2018, the proportion of the elderly population over 65 years old in the United States increased from 9.08% to 15.81%, and the total population of the United States also increased from 178 million to 327 million. It is not difficult to see that the elderly population in the United States is increasing rapidly, both in relative proportion and absolute number.
Generally speaking, there are also great differences in consumption behavior among users of different ages. In addition, there are also great differences in consumption behavior between men and women. Taking the clothing category as an example, young consumers tend to prefer trendy and fashionable styles; while aging consumers tend to prefer casual and ordinary styles.
In the women’s clothing category of Amazon, many “aunt models” have long occupied the top 100 positions in the best-selling list with their basic design style and the advantages of multiple SKUs. Therefore, through the population pyramid structure chart (the horizontal axis is the percentage of consumer population, and the vertical axis is the age distribution), operators can find the consumer population with the greatest impact and conduct targeted product selection and operation.
It can be seen that in 2000, the population distribution of American society was mainly middle-aged people aged 30 to 50, and the population structure was relatively stable. At the same time, the population aged 5 to 14 also produced a peak. It is foreseeable that after a period of time, the post-00s and the elderly will become the mainstream consumer population, and their corresponding consumer market will also usher in growth.
Compared with the US population structure chart in 2000, it can be clearly seen that the main consumer population is the 50-60 age group. The reason for the emergence of such an age group is that the “baby boom” generation was born in 1946-1964 after the end of World War II. These people experienced the hippie era and had a higher consumption capacity because they had relatively complete medical insurance and social security. Most of the newly generated population peaks are between 20 and 40 years old, which is the so-called millennial generation. This consumer group values individuality, is more interested in customized and personalized products and services, and lacks brand loyalty. Due to the high popularity of the Internet, most of them will give priority to online shopping, with a high willingness to consume, but at the same time lacking the ability to consume.
Although the growth rate of the US population continues to decline, the total volume remains stable. Over the past seventy years, the total population of the United States has almost doubled. With a huge population base, the retail consumer market will also usher in a peak.
In addition to the age difference, the US population structure has a special problem-ethnicity. The United States is a multi-ethnic country with large differences. There are 31 ethnic groups with more than 1 million people, and there are even more ethnic groups with less than 1 million people. In the past 20 years, the US population structure has also undergone fundamental changes. In 2000, there were 211 million white people in the United States, accounting for 76.7% of the total population, and 34 million black people, accounting for 12.3%. However, in 2018, the proportion of white people in the United States dropped to 60.7%, the proportion of black people increased to 13.4%, and the proportion of Hispanics increased from 12.5% to 18.4%, becoming the second largest ethnic group in the United States.
Hispanics refer to people from Latin America who speak Spanish as their mother tongue, mainly the mixed descendants of Mexican, Brazilian indigenous people and Spanish and Portuguese people. Most Hispanics believe that they belong to the white cultural circle, so in essence, the Hispanic community is not treated differently because of ethnic issues. The growing population of Hispanics mainly comes from Mexico and the Caribbean. As the main force of the US population growth, Latin American immigrants and their descendants have a low level of education and low English proficiency, so the average wage level is relatively lower, and these characteristics will eventually be reflected in their consumption needs.
Even if the population ratio between different ethnic groups has changed greatly, it is still very uneven in terms of purchasing power. Whites, with a population share of 60.4%, contribute $13.2 trillion in purchasing power, accounting for 81.7% of the US national purchasing power. Although blacks and Latinos account for a large proportion of the population and their purchasing power is growing faster, they still do not have a level of purchasing power that matches their population.
From this, we can see that ethnic minorities in the United States are still limited by various reasons and cannot give full play to their purchasing power. If you select products for these groups, you must consider the number of orders in advance and keep the sales cycle at a shorter level.
Through demographic analysis, we can roughly understand the distribution of American buyers and deduce their shopping needs. However, before selecting products and operating, it is also necessary to analyze the actual purchasing power of buyers. Compared with platforms such as AliExpress and Wish, Amazon provides faster logistics, better services, and the resulting higher average order value. Therefore, most of Amazon’s buyers are middle-class consumers. Although differentiated markets can enable some niche stores specializing in vertical products to survive, for new sellers, they still need to give priority to entering the red ocean market in the early stages, so that there will be greater opportunities.