Adam T. Sutton

Satisfying Hispanic Markets

March 16th, 2009

Reworking your business and marketing to better fit your customers’ needs is generally wise–and it looks like Wal-Mart is testing how to better serve Hispanic customers in two markets.

The largest U.S. retailer plans to open two Hispanic-focused supermarkets this summer, dubbed Supermercados de Walmart. The stores will be in Hispanic neighborhoods in Phoenix and Houston. They will have different products, layouts and a bi-lingual staff.

The U.S. Hispanic population has grown by 20% over the last four years, according to a free report from Experian. Some other tidbits from the report:

– The fastest growing Hispanic age group is age 45 to 54 (up 44% since 2004).

– More than 25% of the Hispanic population reports using a credit card 1 to 5 times in the last 30 days.

– Compared to the average U.S. adult, Hispanics are more likely to shop frequently and to buy “in the spur of the moment.”

– Compared to the average U.S. adult, Hispanics care more about brand names and are more willing to pay more for environmentally-friendly products.

Wal-Mart has been one of the few U.S. retailers to see sales increase in recent months. It will be interesting to see if its two new stores prosper or falter. If they are a big hit, you might want to consider expanding into the growing Hispanic market with a tailor-made approach.

Adam T. Sutton

About Adam T. Sutton

Adam T. Sutton, Senior Reporter, MarketingSherpa
Adam generates content for MarketingSherpa's Email and Inbound Marketing newsletters. His years of experience in interviewing marketers and conveying their insights has spanned topics such as search marketing, social media marketing, ecommerce, email and more. Adam previously powered the content behind MarketingSherpa's Search and Consumer-marketing newsletters and carries that experience into his new role. Today, in addition to writing articles, he contributes content to the MarketingExperiments and MarketingSherpa blogs, as well as MECLABS webinars, workshops and summits.

Prior to joining MarketingSherpa, Adam was the Managing Editor at the Mequoda group. There he created content and promotions for the company's daily email newsletter and managed its schedule.

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