Millennial spending habits have been discussed and analyzed ad nauseam over the past several years, and, according to experts, this laser focus may be to the detriment of retailers.
At the Vicenzaoro trade show held in January, Paola De Luca, creative director of trend forecasting company Trendvision, emphasized a different demographic of shoppers that she contends have been neglected by the jewelry industry: the “midult.”
The midult is a woman De Luca describes as being between the ages of 35 and 55 and having spending power.
“When we are 35 to 55, or even 60,” De Luca explained, “we have more money. We already have the basics (in our wardrobe). Now we want the collector piece and we are willing to spend more money for it.”
A midult essentially describes a Generation X female, born between 1960 and 1980.
After millennials and baby boomers, Gen X is the third largest generation in America, according to a report by media management software company Centro. They make up 25 percent of U.S. adults at a population of 60 million.
(Though Centro’s study doesn’t break down the demographic group into percentage of females versus males, in MetLife’s latest study on the group done in 2009, the firm had it split pretty evenly at 50-50).
Centro cites a statistic from an American Express and Harrison Group study, saying that Gen X represents 29 percent of net worth dollars and 31 percent of total income dollars in the country, making it the generation with more spending power than any other.
