Are you a Millennial? If not, do you know a Millennial?

Well it seems that Millennials – anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) – really like to shop online.

Millennials are certainly more active on social media than older generations, and this impacts how they look for information as they shop. For example, Millennials are much more likely than the general population to “conduct online research for common items like food and cleaning products,” according to The Nielsen Company.

And Millennials aren’t just doing research, they’re also buying a lot of consumer packaged goods (basically, anything packaged with a barcode). Check out this chart – based on NCP data – regarding the percentage who purchased consumer packaged goods online in the past three months:

How do Millennials – and others – get online? Well, according to Nielsen data, Millennials are “highly mobile, and their smartphones are increasingly becoming their go-to devices when it’s time to shop.”

This is how the various demographic groups get online, according to Nielsen:


Since so many Millennials, and other groups, shop online, here are some tips for recording those very purchases!

  • Online purchases may come in one or
    multiple shipments and don’t always include a packing receipt. Consider
    printing out your email/order confirmation so you can refer back to it when
    reporting your purchase.
  • If your items do come separately, please
    scan them as you receive them.
  • If an item arrives with the UPC
    barcode covered by another label, try carefully peeling off that label and
    scanning the UPC barcode on the item (or manually enter the barcode number if
    the barcode is damaged).
  • If you buy something from the
    website of a retailer that also has a storefront, make sure to report the trip
    as an online purchase. For example, if you order something from
    Walmart’s website, select “walmart.com” when you record the purchase
    (whether the item was shipped directly to you or picked up at the store).

As always, thank you panel members for reporting all of your purchases, especially the online ones.

Have a great weekend!

More From NCP: