Gen Z comprises about 20% of the US population and their buying/spending power is growing. Marketers are interested in reaching Gen Z as the group grows larger. 

Here are some insights into Gen Z’s path to purchase:

• More deliberate purchase decisions. As they’re entering the job market and establishing themselves, Gen Z wants to get the most bang for the buck. They rely more on digital sources for information, rather than word of mouth or in-store information.
  • Almost 20% of Gen Z shoppers will look for information on social media about a brand or product before buying, unlike other groups at only 7.4% who do this.
  • Once they find a new brand or product on social media, many Gen Z shoppers (44.3%) tend to talk to family and friends prior to buying. Less than 10% will make an immediate purchase.
• TikTok is their go-to platform. Gen Z prefers TikTok to most other social platforms, not only for product discovery and search, but also for general content.
  • TikTok will be used by 71.2% of Gen Z at least once a month. This will gradually increase over the coming years.
  • Gen Zers between the ages of 18-24 will spend more time on TikTok each day than any other group, at 57 minutes.
  • Two-thirds of Gen Z use TikTok for discovering new brands and products, but Instagram is not far behind.
• Brick-and-mortar stores are still important to Gen Z. Brand and product awareness also comes from physical stores for Gen Z.
  • Half of Gen Z shoppers have recently made in-store purchases of a product they found there.
  • Of the nine product categories followed by eMarketer, physical stores drove awareness the most for Gen Z shoppers.