Older Consumers Keep Spending In Australia – download report

March 16, 2010 | By Kim Walker

A new report published By the Commonwealth Bank in Australia, indicates that older people (aged 65-74 and 75-99) experienced the biggest increases in spend – by 28.2% and 46.8% respectively. Despite this large increase, their payments are relatively small, as there are usually only one or two adults in a household. One of the possible reasons for the increase in expenditure for this age group could be the increase in the age pension, in September 2009. The second is that the increase could be the result of greater usage of cards versus cash by this age group over the year.

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As reported here in WARC, marketers in Australia should ensure they are effectively communicating with older shoppers, who are likely to post the most substantial increase in their discretionary expenditure this year. Elsewhere, the 55–64 year old demographic enjoyed the biggest uptick in their monthly income over this period, at 6%. More broadly, this figure stood at 3.7% for 45–54 year olds, and 2.8% for the 35–44 year old cohort. Members of these two segments registered the highest monthly outlay in 2009, mostly because of the larger size of their households.