Hispanic Women: Smarter Shoppers Than Other Groups

By Adriana Villavicencio, Being Latino

Latinas: Are you good at finding the best deals? Do you wait until you can buy something on sale? Do you research promotions and coupons online to save money? If you answered yes, turns out you’re part of a trend.

Based on a nationally representative survey, a recent reportshowed that Hispanic women are more likely to engage in savvy shopping practices than other demographic groups. Some of these included actively using mobile devices and conducting online searches to save money. The report called them early adopters of the future of shopping, turning to the internet and technological devices in addition to in person retail.

This isn’t new to many of us who saw our mothers and grandmothers stretch their centavos to support their families. But, consider some of these numbers: The survey found that 75 percent of Hispanic women are using coupons to get the lowest sale price, that 54 percent only buy items that are on sale, and that 63 percent travel further to shop at a store where they can save money.

And in 2012, women are strategically using technology to save a buck as well. Nearly 60 percent of Hispanic women use apps to search for the lowest price, 53 percent search online before going shopping, and 53 percent are using their mobile devices in the store to find electronic coupons, sales, and discount codes.

When compared to other ethnic demographic groups – Caucasian and African American women – Hispanic women ranked higher on these shopping behaviors by about 10 percentage points.

These patterns could have significant implications for how advertisers target Latino shoppers, particularly women, and the role of technology in the future of retail.

This article first appeared in Being Latino.

Adriana Villavicencio has contributed to several publications including the Daily News and Space.com, and is a managing editor for the Journal of Equity in Education.  To learn more about Adriana’s education consulting company, please visit www.theradicalideas.com.