THE NEW FAMILY OF SHOPPERS

From Hipster TO HIGHCHAIRS

The millennials are sweeping into parenthood with their own twist—and some traditions, too

BY AMY SPIEZIO

Like their boomer parents, but with a tech-connected edge, today’s millennial moms and dads are changing the landscape of retail in categories that are shifting from the single person’s/young marrieds’ fashion and tech toys to diapers and baby gear.

According to the report “Millennials as New Parents: Rise of a New American Pragmatism” from Barkley by David Gutting and Jeff Fromm, this new generation is shifting its attention to the kids’ market as they begin parenting.

Gutting and Fromm asked millennial parents to name their favorite brands before baby—Nike, Sony, Gap, Apple, and Levi’s. After parenthood, Nike and Gap remain in the top five but practical Target, Old Navy, and Walmart replace the tech options. As these offspring grow and seek eyewear, practices are facing new and timeless challenges and opportunities.

SOCIAL SHOPPING

The generation that has never known life without the Internet is raising kids in a more technologically integrated way, and just as they look at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and their favorite blogs before they buy a car or a watch, they’re also looking into eyewear and lenses online before visiting their ECPs.

“They do research now because it’s so accessible,” says Julie Bart, managing pediatric optician at The Glasses Menagerie in Minneapolis, which does about 80% of its business in the youth market. The practice is the only kids’ shop in the upper Midwest and draws from a population of well-informed parents referred from the nearby ophthalmology clinic at the University of Minnesota and in the five surrounding states.

“A lot of times a family will come in and the child will say, ‘I want those lenses that change color’ or the parents will note that the child is on white boards all day so can we be sure to have the non-glare protection,” Bart says.

“I can tell you that millennial parents rely heavily on social media and the reviews strongly guide their decision to visit a particular office, doctor, dentist, etc.,” says Katheryn Dabbs Schramm, ABOC, SLD, president and CEO of A Child’s View Pediatric Optical Dispensaries in Orange County, CA.

Social media influences the parents’ lives AND their children, she notes. “Parents still solicit personal recommendations, especially referrals from doctors; but, now they do their homework using search engines and social media before actually availing themselves of that service.”

VIDEO ON DEMAND

Listen to a child explain the power in swaying his parents’ purchasing decision in this video from Ministry of Culture (ministryofculture.com).

HERE’S HOW TO ACCESS IT:

Search “Actable” in your Apple or Google Play store,

Download and launch the app on your mobile device,

Frame this page through your screen and press “Scan.”

However, social research doesn’t always mean that they know what they want. Ivonne Goldstein, president of Optiwow and Optiwow.com, the optical portion of pediatric ophthalmologist Dr. Roberto Warman’s practice at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, notes. “Some of them are certainly more knowledgeable. They’ve done some research and they come in here a little better informed and come in here knowing exactly the brand they want. But others are expecting us to give them guidance, especially the ones that don’t already wear glasses. The first time they’re a little more scared and they need a little help making their decisions.”

And Internet-acquired knowledge doesn’t always mean that parents are WELL informed. Like so many other instances of the Internet sharing dubious data, some shoppers come in misinformed and needing some correct details.

“Parents are now aware of things that weren’t issues 15 years ago,” says Bart, “So Google is good, and it’s bad because sometimes they come in with knowledge that is skewed by someone’s opinion more than it is about the fact.”

GETTING CONNECTED

Getting and keeping this generation of parents demands a different focus than recall postcards. Websites are the new must-have, along with a social media presence.

“To survive, every ‘O’ must have an Internet presence,” Schramm says. “This is typically where O.D.s (and opticians) shine. We (A Child’s View) find older, established pediatric ophthalmologists slow to embrace this vital component.”

But in Miami, the Optiwow optical has actually jumped ahead of the pack by adding an online dispensing option. With its patients coming from Miami, around the state, and internationally, the practice was on the phone often with parents who wanted to order eyewear for their kids but couldn’t make it back to Optiwow to order product in person.

“The patients come here and shop here, but many go home and they want another pair and they can’t fly back to Miami,” says Goldstein. “Now we say they can go to the website and order. So in that sense, it was a great plus for us to build the website.”

Girl POWER

Pretty, smart, and tough, girls today can do anything their boy counterparts can do, and today’s eyewear goes right along with them packing a powerful punch of style, and color, and fun.

Clearvision Jessica McClintock style JMC 4802

Kenmark Lily Pulitzer Trini styles

Tura Ted Baker style B934

Westroupe Superflex Kids style SFK-137

Luxottica’s Disney style Anna

Safilo Kids’ style GDX4228

“Parents today, even those who wore glasses themselves, want their children to look good, they want them to see well, and they want them safe. And, then, there is the price consideration, as well.

It’s cosmetics, visual performance, safety, and cost—usually in that order.

But when it isn’t in that order, it is evident within the first few seconds of meeting the family. Then, it’s cost, performance/safety, and cosmetics.”

— KATHERYN DABBS SCHRAMM,
owner/president, A Child’s View,
Orange County, CA

Having the Internet presence, she notes, has also helped expand their inventory beyond the 600 to 700 styles on display at the brick location. Goldstein does the buying for the online and physical sites simultaneously. ”I see the vendors every three months and whatever I am purchasing for the store I’m putting up and whatever is discontinued comes down. It’s a lot of work.”

The result is, however, that Optiwow.com has become an endless aisle for the physical location. “We’re limited by physical space here in the shop,” she says. “We try to carry the same things, but we have many more colors on the website to show and different sizes that we don’t have on the boards. It doesn’t mean we don’t offer them and buy whatever the patient wants, but online is unlimited.”

This style also ties in with how millennial shoppers buy, she notes. “They see the doctor, they go to the optical shop, and then they’re not sure. They want to show the glasses to the father, or they want to make sure, and they want to price shop and see what’s around. So sometimes they try here and then they go home and finish the purchase online. Many times they want them to be fitted in the shop. We have the same prices [online and in-store] so whatever makes them happy.”

While online try-on tech at the website is on the to-do list, right now potential web shoppers can send in a picture of their child and get one-on-one assistance. “After all these years working with kids, we pretty much know what they’re looking for,” she says.

The site also helps parents deal with the problem of sometime frequent replacements required when kids’ eyewear takes a beating or disappears. “A lot of the business is that they want a repeat,” Goldstein observes. “Kids need a couple of frames, especially the little ones, because the toddlers lose glasses, or they break them.”

Boy TIME

From camo prints to sleek metal shapes, boys will be boys who look stylish, while materials such as rubberized temples and memory metals help keep models in one piece.

Marchon Flexon Kids style Trek

Marcolin Skechers style SE1095

Match Float Kids style K 47

Ogi Kids style OK314

REM Converse Kids style K025

Tartine et Chocolat boy’s style distributed by Prisme Optique

Hilco Leader Circuit Rx sunglasses

“If a parent says, ‘We’re thinking tortoise shell,’ we say, ‘Well, let’s think of something else!’ They can go for tortoise shell their whole entire life, they don’t have to wear it when they’re three.”

—JULIE BART,
managing pediatric optician,
The Glasses Menagerie, Minneapolis, MN

WHO’S YOUR Daddy & Mommy?

In “Millennials as New Parents: Rise of A New American Pragmatism” from Barkley by David Gutting and Jeff Fromm, the authors break down the massive millennial generation into a quintet of segments called the “five orbits”. The groups were formed by analyzing respondents’ behaviors and attitudes.

IMAGE FIRST: 7% OF MILLENNIAL PARENTS

An image-conscious group, these parents are lower in income and education, but also the most style conscious—“to the point, at times, of flamboyance. Highly attached to social media and constantly connected.

FAMILY FIRST: 26% OF MILLENNIAL PARENTS

Traditional families in which the parents are married to each other. The most educated of the orbits, but they care little about the latest trends. Use social networks to stay close to family.

UNDER STRESS: 17% OF MILLENNIAL PARENTS

Low on confidence and optimism, these millennials were negatively impacted by the recession and have a high rate of unemployment/lower labor participation rate. Their social network participation is lower, too.

STYLE AND SUBSTANCE: 26% OF MILLENNIAL PARENTS

The second highest in educational attainment and highest in income. Sharing traits with “Image First” and “Family First,” but with a global and expansive world view, and stronger drive for success.

AGAINST THE GRAIN: 24% OF MILLENNIAL PARENTS

Missing a sense of empowerment and an adventurous spirit, this group runs contrary to most millennials. “Against the Grain” members lag in leadership. “They work very hard, but don’t make much progress.”

IT’S STILL ABOUT THE KIDS

While it’s important to focus on the millennial parents and how they’re changing the way business is done, at the end of the day the young patients are the key to pediatric success stories.

“As a parent, I want whatever is going to make my child happy while wearing their glasses. I hate to say they’re different, but the percentage of kids with glasses do mean they are different. Why not make that a good different?” asks The Glasses Menagerie’s Julie Bart.

“Thirty years ago, glasses on a child were the kiss of death,” Schramm says. “Even greater than the price barrier was the social stigma associated with a child wearing glasses. This had to be addressed and overcome before the selection process could began. Parents who wore glasses as children were the most difficult as they recalled the trauma.”

Now it’s tech, not trauma, that causes an optician to pull parents aside for a conference. “We don’t always want the child to know all of the technology of the frames because then it becomes kind of a play thing rather than what it is: a functional medical device,” Bart says.

While their eyewear is durable, it might be best if the kids don’t know quite how strong it is. “Just because we have a TR90 that has some flexibility, or if someone sells them a Flexon frame that can twist, it doesn’t mean we want them to take advantage of that except in the situations that it’s called for. Sometimes, we’ll show the parents discreetly so they understand and are informed that these are a great frame for Johnny because you just told me he plays WWE with his friends five nights a week and you don’t need that broken frame.”

As much as durability is a priority, coming from former hipster parents, can it be any surprise looking cool is important, too? Luckily, there are styles that make it easy for kids to look good in school or at play. Bart recommends having a rough and tumble pair and a dressier pair, too. “We really try to make parents understand two pairs are essential and they’re great for the running around gym class.”

When discussing it with parents, she says, “If it was my child, and that’s how I always reference things, I would always have a dress pair. And then they also have two pair just so in case something happens you have backup.”

Bart also stresses the importance of an eyewear wardrobe with sun protection. The Eyeglass Menagerie charges the same for clear lenses or photochromics, and 60% to 80% of patients leave the office with lenses that change.

New products and new attitudes have prevailed to take the sting out of spectacles for kids, Schramm notes: “This [trauma] changed gradually and is now all but gone. Orthodontics and eyeglasses are both a rite of passage.”