Due to increased longevity and the ageing of post war baby boomers, the population of over-65s is set to swell over the next 20 years.
Over the next 20 years the number of senior citizens will have risen 40% to 13.4m.
The growth will be strongest between 2009 and 2014 when there will be an addition of 1.3m people to the age group.
Yet silver consumers' participation in retail is currently lower than average in every sector apart from food & grocery.
Older customers are generally less interested in the latest clothing fashions, homewares design or technological advancements and therefore they shop less for these types of goods.
But this is not because silver consumers are lacking in cash, with a growing number of affluent over 65s who have private final salary pensions and have also made healthy profits from steeply rising house prices.
In fact price is proportionally less important to silver consumers in every sector covered in this report.