Sursa foto: Annie Spratt / Unsplash
The young generation relies mainly on parents, from a financial perspective, while trying to diversify their sources of income. The average income of a young Romanian from Generation Z is 432 euros per month. In Romania, for more than a third of young people (39%), parents are still the main source of income, while 31% have a full-time job and 12% receive scholarships.
These young people feel dependent on their parents and changing this status quo is their priority in the near future. Thus, the main objective is to complete their studies and begin to gain professional experience, according to a Mastercard study conducted in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, on the attitudes and behaviors of Generation Z (“Gen Z”), the youngest group of consumers who are currently deciding on future market trends.
In the 11 countries targeted by the study, including Romania, people aged between 18 and 24 represent 7.2% of the population (approximately 11.5 million), and their importance for the economy is growing. The new Mastercard research shows that although young people are strongly anchored in digital, face-to-face relationships and interactions are extremely important to them. At the same time, they are involved in solving various social and environmental problems, expecting the same from the brands they pursue. These smart consumers, constantly connected to digital media, expect commercial and financial services to be fast and convenient. They are eager to buy online and are fans of contactless mobile payments as well as mobile banking services.
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People and personal values, before money
Although money is important, relationships with other people are the most appreciated by Gen Z, and almost half of them (48%) agree that there are more significant things in life than money. Asked about the values that are most important to them, Generation Z youth indicated family (65%), health (60%), career (36%), education and financial situation (both 35%). Despite the common perception, in their opinion, nothing can replace conversations in person, and 61% say they like to spend their free time with others, especially with friends, rather than alone.
Their predilection for deep values is also highlighted by their concern for social and environmental issues, and almost half of Romanian respondents (46%) say they donate to various foundations and NGOs, and 52% are involved in volunteering.
“As true idealists, young people take responsibility for shaping the future, finding the environmental and social challenges of the present important. Therefore, they expect brands to operate in these areas as well. Following the study, we saw that young people appreciate sustainable companies and want to get involved in society through donations or volunteering. At Mastercard we facilitate this through our initiatives within Priceless Causes, but also through many other ways “, said Cosmin Vladimirescu, Country Manager Mastercard Romania and Croatia.
Smart consumers, anchored in digital
Gen Z is the first generation born in a time when the internet is widely available and they are inseparable from the digital world. They are avid consumers of social media, where they are present to be up to date with everything new, to stay connected with friends and to develop their passions. Gen Z are the most active on YouTube (90%), WhatsApp (88%), Instagram (85%), Facebook (82%) and Tik Tok (67%). 57% of them use social networks as the main source of information and inspiration, and 79% keep in touch daily with their friends through messaging applications. Gen Z also enjoys daily digital entertainment, using music streaming platforms (70%), playing video games (36%) or watching movies at home (24%).
For this digital generation, e-commerce is a natural environment – 74% buy online at least once a month, mainly for clothing (55%) and food (35%) or for orders in and from restaurants or bars (32% ), as well as for the payment of utilities (31%). At the same time, they are buyers who pay attention to prices and lovers of promotions. 66% always look for more information about a product, accessing several sources, before buying, and 69% check if the desired product is available anywhere else in the promotion.
The quality of the online shopping experience is essential for Gen Z
When shopping online, Gen Z prefers digital payments. However, although we are talking about a digital-first generation, 52% of them choose to pay the order upon delivery, the next preferred methods being payment by debit or credit card (27%).
“Gen Z enjoys the convenience of technological advancement. Brands that want to assert themselves in their digital world must offer them services that are easy to access and available online, speed and a seamless experience, preferably all of which are also accessible on smartphones. And here we refer to everything – shopping, managing your own finances, payments and all other types of services. It is worth keeping up to date with Gen Z preferences, because these are the trends that will shape the world of tomorrow “, added Cosmin Vladimirescu, Mastercard Romania.
For Gen Z, contactless means payment by mobile phone
When it comes to shopping in physical stores, Gen Z prefers cashless payments, due to the ease and speed with which they can be made. 26% of Mastercard respondents pay with a card almost daily and 38% use it more often than cash. One of the main obstacles to card payment is the lack of POS terminals in stores. In this context, 29% of young people in Romania consider that there are still too few places that accept card payment.
At the same time, contactless payments are growing rapidly in popularity, with 55% of Gen Z consumers in Romania already using this method, and 29% saying they intend to do so in the future.
Moreover, Gen Z is a group of consumers inclined to mobile payments. This type of contactless payment is facilitated by the tokenization technology developed by Mastercard. 49% of Romanian respondents stated that they use this payment method at present (versus 38% the average at CEE level), and 31% say that they will pay this way in the future.
Banking services accessible in a single application
In addition to shopping or other services, young people are also excited about the benefits of digital banking solutions. 84% of respondents in Romania say they have a bank account, slightly above the CEE average of 82%. At the same time, mobile banking applications are very popular among Gen Z. For them, a good mobile banking application is one of the most important factors to consider in choosing a banking institution (29%), along with the offer of price for the products / services received (35%), quality of services in relation to the customer (34%), reputation (33%) and benefits offered (31%).