As the fastest growing racial group in the US, with estimated buying power expected to reach nearly $1 trillion by 2018, Asian Americans are a market to watch. The Asian American population is relatively young, highly educated, high income, and tech savvy, all characteristics with great appeal for marketers. To succeed with this desirable market, retailers and marketers need to understand how Asians think about shopping, what drives their purchases, and the role that demographic factors like gender, age, and income play in Asians’ shopping decisions. In this report, Mintel explores all of these factors and more, providing insight into how brands can best reach this geographically and ethnically diverse group of consumers.

This is the first report that Mintel has produced on the shopping experience of Asians. However, readers may also be interested in Mintel’s Asian American Lifestyles and Entertainment – US, September 2014, The Shopping Experience of the Hispanic Consumer – US, April 2014, and The Shopping Experience of the Black Consumer – US, April 2014.

Value figures throughout this report are at rsp (retail selling prices) excluding sales tax unless otherwise stated.

For the purposes of consumer research for this report Asians are defined as persons “having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East (Japan, China, Korea, etc), Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, etc), South Asia/Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc).”

Mintel’s use of the term Asian Americans refers to Asians who have immigrated to the US or who are living in the US of any immigration status. They may be visiting foreign nationals, first-, second-, or higher-generation immigrants. Throughout the report, Asian and Asian American are used to refer to the population described above.

Expenditure data are derived from the CEX (Consumer Expenditure Survey), which is conducted annually by the US BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics). To reduce the volatility that can result from small samples and infrequent purchases of some items, estimates are based on three-year rolling averages.

• Note that although the report refers to households, the CEX technically measures spending by CUs (consumer units). See the Terms section for a definition of consumer unit.

For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer research through GMI in partnership with Offerwise to explore Asian consumers’ shopping habits, purchasing behaviors, and attitudes toward shopping. Mintel was responsible for the survey design, data analysis, and reporting. Fieldwork was conducted in May 2014 among a sample of 750 Asian adults aged 18+ with access to the internet.

Asians are defined by the US Census (and in this report) as persons “having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent.” Mintel’s survey population consists of people who chose “Asian” when asked to select a single category to identify themselves among the following five options: White, Black or African American, Asian, Native American or Alaskan Native, or Other race. The census allows respondents to select multiple races, and census data used in this report includes people who selected Asian alone, as well as people who selected Asian in combination with one or more other races to describe themselves.

Within the census, reported entries under “Asian” include Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and “Other Asian.” In Mintel’s research, respondents were offered a choice of 14 categories to describe themselves, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Samoan, and “Other, please specify.” Only four categories, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Other had sufficient respondents to allow for separate analysis and reporting by subgroup.

Mintel’s use of the term Asian Americans refers to Asians who have immigrated to the US or who are living in the US, of any immigration status. They may be visiting foreign nationals, first-, second-, or higher-generation immigrants. Mintel sets quotas to ensure survey respondents are proportionally balanced to represent the US Asian adult population based on gender, age, household income, region, and ethnic heritage in the home.

Half of Mintel’s Asian survey population were born in the US, and half are foreign-born. Please note that our surveys are conducted online and in English only. Asians who are not online and/or do not speak English are not included in our survey results.

Mintel has also analyzed data from Experian Marketing Services, using the NHCS (Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study). The Experian Marketing Services, Simmons NHCS was carried out during November 2012-December 2013 and the results are based on the sample of 23,689 adults aged 18+, with results weighted to represent the US adult population, including 761 Asians.

The following is a list of abbreviations used in this report:

Acculturated/unacculturated Asians: Mintel assessed respondents’ dominant cultural affiliations using the following question:

“Thinking about your life overall – the music you listen to, the people you socialize with most, your family at home, the types of food you eat, the TV programs you watch, magazines or newspapers you read, the neighborhood you live in, etc, which culture – the American or the Asian culture from your country of origin/descent – do you think is most dominant in your life?”

Throughout this report, Mintel uses the term acculturated to refer to Asian Americans who responded “American culture mostly” or “American culture somewhat more than Asian culture” to this question. Respondents who selected “Asian culture mostly” or “Asian culture somewhat more than American culture” are referred to as unacculturated.

Consumer unit (CU): The US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey measures spending by consumer units rather than households. A consumer unit is all related members of a household, or financially independent members of a household. A household may include more than one consumer unit. A consumer unit may be composed of (1) all members of a household related by blood, or by a legal arrangement such as marriage or adoption; (2) a financially independent individual living alone, sharing a house, as a roomer in a private home, or in living quarters of a hotel or motel; or (3) two or more individuals living together, pooling their income, and jointly making expenditure decisions. There are slightly more CUs than there are households in the US.

Generations are discussed within this report, and they are defined as:

* also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers

In order to provide an inflation-adjusted price value for markets, Mintel uses the CPI (Consumer Price Index) to deflate current prices. The CPI is defined as follows: