A new boutique gym opens with striking branding: neon lights, loud music, social media full of toned twenty-somethings lifting heavy weights. It attracts a lively young crowd. Then the owner checks his membership data and notices something unexpected. The members who stay longest, pay without fuss and refer their friends are mostly in their fifties and sixties. They joined despite the marketing, not because of it.
It’s an easy mistake to make. Much of the business world still treats younger customers as the default audience, the ones worth chasing, and treats older customers as an afterthought.
The demographic reality is moving the other way. Across the world, and gradually in South Africa too, the share of older people in the population is rising. For small businesses thinking about the next ten years, that shift is one of the more predictable changes on the horizon, and one of the more overlooked.
One Like insight: The future customer many businesses ignore is the one who’s already ageing into their market.
The numbers behind the shift
The World Health Organization projects that by 2030, one in six people in the world will be aged 60 or over, rising from around 1 billion people in 2020 to 1.4 billion. By 2050, that number is expected to double to 2.1 billion, and the number of people aged 80 or older is expected to triple. Between 2015 and 2050, the share of the world’s population over 60 is set to rise from 12% to 22%.
The WHO also notes something easy to miss: although population ageing began in wealthy countries, the fastest change is now happening in low- and middle-income countries. By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s over-60s are expected to live in them.
South Africa is still a relatively young country compared with Europe or Japan, so the shift here is more gradual. But it is under way, and it matters more than the national average suggests. In categories such as home improvement, healthcare, travel, financial services and gifts for grandchildren, older customers are often important buyers. For businesses in those sectors, the over-60 customer is already significant, and likely to become more so.
These are long-term projections, and they say nothing certain about any individual business. But few trends are as predictable as ageing. Nobody needs to guess whether today’s 50-year-olds will be 60 in ten years’ time.
What older customers tend to value
Older customers are no more a single group than younger ones. A fit 62-year-old cycling enthusiast and an 85-year-old with limited mobility have very different needs. But several themes come up repeatedly, and most of them are simply good business practice.
Clarity. Readable text, clear prices and plain language matter to everyone, and especially to people whose eyesight is changing. As we explored in The Customers Your Brand Can’t See, designing for readability helps far more customers than the ones you have in mind.
Choice of channel. Many older customers are comfortable online, but appreciate being able to phone, visit in person or speak to a real person when something goes wrong. Removing every human option can quietly shut them out.
Respect. Older customers notice when advertising either ignores them or portrays them as frail and confused. Showing people of different ages using your products naturally, without patronising them, signals that they’re welcome.
Trust and service. Experienced customers often value reliability, honest advice and good after-sales support over novelty. They can also be loyal, and their recommendations carry weight among friends and family.
[Infographic placement] The world is getting older. A simple bar chart: people aged 60+, 1 billion (2020) → 1.4 billion (2030) → 2.1 billion (2050). Beside it, four small icons: Clarity · Choice of channel · Respect · Trust and service. Caption: World Health Organization: by 2030, one in six people worldwide will be 60 or older.
Preparing for an older market
Start by finding out who your customers actually are. Many small businesses have a strong picture of their typical customer that doesn’t match their sales data. Look at who buys most often, who spends most and who stays longest, and ask whether your marketing, website and service reflect them.
Then look ahead. If your core customers are in their forties and fifties today, what will they need from you in ten years? A furniture shop might think about chairs that are easier to get out of. A restaurant might consider lighting, noise and menu readability. A service business might keep a phone line open even as it moves bookings online.
A few questions can help:
- What is the real age profile of our best customers, rather than the one we imagine?
- Do our photos, words and channels make older customers feel welcome?
- Could someone with weaker eyesight or less confidence online easily buy from us?
- How might our customers’ needs change as they get older, and are we ready?
Which brings us back to the boutique gym and its surprisingly loyal older members. The owner doesn’t need to abandon the neon lights. But showing a few members over 50 in his marketing, adding a class designed for strength and mobility in later life, and training staff to welcome beginners of every age could turn an accidental market into a deliberate one, and one that’s growing every year.
Sources
- World Health Organization, “Ageing and health” fact sheet, updated 1 October 2025. Source of the 2030 and 2050 projections and the 12% to 22% figure.
