Understanding baby boomers online: the research challenge

The ageing baby boomer generation is challenging stereotypes of older consumers as anxious adopters of Internet technologies, and represents a large and economically vital consumer segment. However, what little consumer research exists on these consumers has focused on their offline consumer behaviour, while research from the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has focused on older demographics and specific interaction and cognitive issues rather than consumer behaviour. Consequently there is a need to better understand the needs and behaviour of baby boomers as online consumers. This paper is an initial proposal for the development of a framework to help researchers and marketers better meet the needs of this important consumer segment.