Research explores how each generation differs in perceptions of the repair experience and how to market service to them
Fort Wayne, Ind.—Changes are underway in the Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) auto repair market share of the three major consumer generations: Millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers, affecting how consumers buy auto repair.
The latest consumer research from Lang Marketing explores how those generations differ in their values and perceptions of the auto repair experience and how best to market auto repair to each generation. The following is a summary of the report.
Generation Age Ranges
Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964 and currently range in age from 61 to 79. Gen Xers have birth-year brackets of 1965 and 1980 and are 45 to 60. Millennials (Gen Y) were born between 1981 and 1996 and are between 29 and 44.
DIFM Market Volume Shift
As their share of the U.S. population changes, each generation will represent significantly different portions of the DIFM market in the coming years.
• Baby Boomers are falling in DIFM share, decreasing from approximately 37% of the 2014 volume to an estimated 24% of the 2024 market represented by the three generations.
• In contrast, Gen Xers are expanding their DIFM market share, climbing from 35% to about 39% between 2014 and 2024.
• Millennials (Gen Y) are achieving the fastest growth in DIFM share, increasing from 28% of 2014 volume to approximately 37% in 2024.
Changes By 2030
Over the balance of the decade, each generation’s share of the DIFM auto repair market will change.
• Lang Marketing estimates that by 2030, Baby Boomers’ DIFM share will decrease to the low double digits.
• Gen Xers will hold approximately 38% of the share by the beginning of the next decade.
• Millennials will generate the largest portion of the 2030 DIFM market.
Generation Differences in Auto Repair Experiences
In its nationwide consumer study, Lang Marketing asked the three generations how they prefer to purchase auto repair: online, by calling repair outlets, or by visiting repair outlets.
While only minor differences existed in the overall findings (across all three generations), Lang Marketing found generational differences within all three purchase experiences.
Online
While approximately one-third of all consumers prefer to buy auto repair online, there are significant differences between the generations. Nearly half of Millennials prefer buying auto repair online rather than calling or visiting repair outlets.
In contrast, only one-fifth of Baby Boomers prefer to purchase auto repair online, and less than one-third of Gen Xers favor this approach.
Call Repair Outlets
Just over 30% of all consumers prefer calling repair outlets to purchase auto repair. Again, there were significant differences between the three generations.
Calling repair outlets is the most popular option for Gen Xers (over 37%), and it is the second choice of Baby Boomers, just under one-third. However, one-quarter of Millennials prefer to call repair outlets.
Visiting Repair Outlets
Nearly half of Baby Boomers’ first choice is to visit repair outlets to purchase auto repair. However, they were alone in this choice. Only one-third of Gen Xers prefer to do so, and only approximately one-quarter of Millennials want to visit repair outlets as their first choice.
Visiting auto repair outlets was nearly twice as likely to be the top choice of Baby Boomers than Millennials. In contrast, buying auto repair online was more than twice as popular with Millennials than Baby Boomers.
Moving forward
Within each of the three major adult generations, there are differences in how auto repair is purchased based on gender, vehicle nameplate (domestic versus foreign) and vehicle age, among other factors.
The increasing strength of buying auto repair online, fueled by the Millennials’ expanding share of the DIFM market, increases the need for repair shops to improve their digital presence and expands the DIFM market opportunities of e-Commerce, especially o2o (online to offline) auto repair transactions.
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