Discover in-store, buy online: How high-income consumers shop

Like all consumers, for high-income consumers (earning $150,000 or more a year), the physical store is the top source of discovery, according to our US High-Income Consumers’ Path to Purchase 2024 report.

• High-income consumers are more likely to make their final purchase online, setting them apart from the general population.
• “Part of that is because they have more flexibility,” said our analyst Paola Flores-Marquez. “They’re not as pressured by discounts or flash sales.”

Discounts and coupons do play a role in the physical shopping journey among high-income consumers, cited as helpful for finding new brands/products by 43.1%, according to the report. However, product samples and demonstrations also promote in-store discovery for a third (33.5%) of high-income consumers, 10 percentage points more than for lower-income consumers.

Online, high-income consumers are more likely to discover products through multibrand retailer websites and brands’ official websites/apps than lower-income consumers.

• “Everybody seeks out comparisons, everybody looks online, but higher-income consumers are more likely to use these channels, possibly because they’ve been using them for a lot longer than everyone else,” said Flores-Marquez. “They were the first to have access to the internet and smartphones.”
• This behavior also applies to Gen Z consumers, she said. “Gen Zers know how to navigate online channels intuitively, and how to make product and price comparisons.”

Another way high-income consumers differ from other income levels is that they value comparable quality and price more than discounts or sales, per the report.

• The top reason high-income consumers bought a new brand or product across consumer electronics, food, beauty, furniture and home goods, accessories, and shoes categories was that it was of better quality than a similar product.
• For clothing, household supplies, and health and personal care, a better price was the top reason.

On social, Instagram and Facebook are the most popular platforms for high-income consumers to discover, research, and evaluate brands and products.

• 62.4% of high-income consumers use Instagram to discover products and 27.1% use it to research and evaluate them, according to the report.
• As for Facebook, 57.7% use it for discovery and 23.5% for research and evaluation.
• “This makes sense, as people in this income bracket are likely to be older, and going to be more comfortable with platforms like Facebook and Instagram over TikTok or YouTube,” said Flores-Marquez.

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