According to recent research from Starcom, of the 20 million people aged 50+, 43% are internet users and 23% buy goods and services on line – and this is from an age group that commands 80% of the UK wealth and 40% of all consumer spending.
This has implication for much of our marketing.

Here are some further observations from this report:

Almost half the UK's over-50s use the Web and spend £900m a year online accounting for over 20% of all online shoppers - a figure that is set to grow.

As an age group that commands 80% of the UK's personal wealth and accounts for 40% of all consumer spending, it is a market advertisers cannot afford to ignore any more.

The over-50s online are challenging perceptions. We know they make up a quarter of online consumers and about 14 % of 70- to 79-year-olds have Web access, while over half of the over-50s use broadband.

95% of internet-connected over-50s have on online for at least two years.

Search engine optimisation is crucial for advertisers targeting the over-50s online. These consumers say they go as far back as three pages before clicking onto a link, suggesting they have preconceptions about sites listed earlier.

They shun paid-for search results preferring and trusting natural listings instead.

E mail does not work well as a recruitment tool, but is effective in terms of customer retention.

Starcom research also shows that 22% of over-50s shopping online use familiar high street brands, versus 32% who buy from purely online outlets. This is perhaps not surprising given that they tend to have the time to browse high street stores.