Without doubt, the topic of ‘Millennials’ was one on everyone’s lips in 2017. Many discussions seemed to centre around these tech-savvy individuals in their mid-late twenties, who despite claiming to be ambitious and hardworking, actually want to do less work for more money…. Not only did the topic become rather tedious by mid-point last year, I’m not sure it’s even a true representation of society’s Millennial population?

As Karen Stacey, Chief Executive of DCM said at Advertising Week Europe’s recent European Leadership Roundtable: "I hate labels because I think it makes young people end up becoming those labels. They are just young people; the motivations about good leadership are still the same. It feels like we're making an excuse, because we can't understand it, rather than leading people in the right way.” 

As we are all starting to get into the swing of 2018, the youngest generation of millennials are turning 22, with the oldest reaching a ripe old age of 37 years old. How time flies! Many of them will be celebrating the birth of their first child or welcoming another addition to their blossoming families. With more little mouths to feed, could there potentially be a connection here between the rise of online grocery and E-commerce channels?

When you’re running around all day after little feet, or dashing out of work to do the school run, before rushing back home to log on, time truly is precious. The need for convenience becomes greater when you’re always on-the-go and this has definitely been a trend identified by our FMCG clients and candidates.

We’ve undoubtedly seen a rise in our FMCG clients asking to be introduced to individuals who have solid experience within the Out of Home sector. This is a channel in which both big bluechips and smaller brands are massively focused on for 2018. Historically, OOH was always seen as being the less ‘sexy’ route to market  - but now it’s the channel that everyone wants a piece of.

Another trend that’s undeniable is that the online grocery market is exploding in the UK, arguably due to the E-commerce expectations of Millennials.

Supermarkets like Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury's are leading the way with home delivery, local pick as well as strategically placed lockers. Amazon’s entry into the UK in mid 2016 with Amazon Fresh, and their same day delivery options, added additional competitive fire to FMCG sales and has gone from strength to strength over the past 18 months.

You might have also read recently about Pepsi launching it’s first E-commerce-only drink Drinkfinity, allowing the brand to operate like a startup to react faster to new consumer trends.

The online marketplace has also enabled upstart brands like Hipp and Organix to gain footholds in grocery that they would never have been able to accomplish offline, due to the high cost of trade spend in market entry.

On the whole, the UK is relatively advanced in online grocery compared to the rest of Europe: 6.9% of UK FMCG sales are done online. According to IDG, grocery online in the UK will grow 68% by 2021 so it’s no surprise the retailers and brands are taking E-commerce pretty seriously right now!

Times are truly changing - popping down to Tesco or Asda for your weekly shop is becoming a thing of the past…can you believe those lazy millennials can now actually do their grocery shop without getting out of bed?! Maybe they’re on to something.