Hispanic Consumer Behavior: New Study Finds Latinos Have Higher Levels Of Shopping Enjoyment And Fashion Leadership

There are roughly 52 million Hispanics in the United States and population analytics have confirmed that Latinos are the fastest growing minority group in the United States. As such, their influence in the country and their purchasing power make them a huge factor in the consumer market.

Take, for example, the fact that Latinos buy 25 percent of all movie tickets in the United States. Or that the Selig Center for Economic Growth found that the purchasing power of Hispanics in 2012 is $1.2 trillion -- and that value is expected to rise over the next few years.

As such, understanding the Hispanic consumer behavior is imperative and that's exactly what the authors of a recent study -- Fashion leadership, shopping enjoyment, and gender: Hispanic versus, Caucasian consumers׳ shopping preferences -- from SUNY Buffalo State and University of North Texas try to do. Previous studies have established that younger consumers have high levels of fashion leadership and shopping enjoyment, and that Generation Y embraces technology and shopping. But does race play a role?

According to the findings of this study, yes! The study found that Hispanics are more likely to be fashion leaders than their Caucasian peers and they also conveyed higher levels of shopping enjoyment than Caucasians as well. Within genders, the study found that women are more interested in fashion and display higher levels of shopping enjoyment than men.

The findings of this study are consistent with that of a 2007 study -- Future Forces Transforming Apparel Retailing in the United States: An Environmental Scanning Approach -- which found that Hispanic consumers are more fashion conscious and in addition to having more fashion leaders, the Latino consumer is more aware and concerned about price, trends and brand names. Researchers believe that the desire to assimilate is what drives Hispanics to purchase fashion goods.

In fact, a 2010 study found that immigrants are more likely to purchase brand name products from prestige fashion labels in order to assimilate. Specifically, the more an immigrant identifies with his/her ethnic culture, the more likely s(he) will be to purchase an brand name product from a prestige label.