In the context of retailing, ‘wellness consumption’ cannot be defined
by a product or service category, but by shopping motives. As
previous research strongly suggests our consumption patterns to
be influenced both by age and generational effects, in the current
study we explore the wellness orientations of consumers at different
ages/belonging to different generations as they manifest in everyday
practices, especially in the context of retailing. Drawing on that, we
aim to shed light on implications of the population ageing on retailingrelated
wellness industry. The main focus is on Baby Boomers. Starting
with a random sample of 18–75-year-olds (N=1600), we extracted
six dimensions connected to different aspects of wellness. Next, the
dimensions extracted among aged 18–75 and 55−64 were fed into
respective cluster analyses which both yielded seven segments. The
differences in the composition of wellness dimensions indicate that
age-/generation-specific segmentation is warranted and will return in
more accurate estimations of the market potential and more targeted
marketing activities. Examination of the parallel typologies enabled us
to gain a broader understanding of differences between generations.
There was an obvious age-/generation-based pattern in the cluster
memberships in the 18–75 sample, all clusters offering different
opportunities for the wellness market.