Spending time on social media? American youth's peak season spending trends

According to the "US Holiday Shopping" report released by eMarketer, Americans' holiday spending this year will be close to $1.3 trillion, up 7.0% from last year. Among them, Generation Z is the most active consumer, with 62% planning to shop during the holiday season.

Generation Z Holiday Shopping Behavior

Surprisingly, 18 to 24-year-olds are more likely to shop at a shopping mall than any other age group, with 25% saying they are likely to go to an offline mall to make a purchase, according to CivicScience.

Young people aren’t using buy now, pay later or mobile payment apps in large numbers this holiday season. Debit cards are more common, with 41% of Gen Z using them, followed by credit cards and cash, according to TransUnion.

Surveys show that 80% of Gen Z will shop through social media this holiday season, although they may not buy directly through an app.

According to SimplicityDX, 40% of people will use social platforms for all or most of their shopping. In terms of purchase channels, Instagram is the most popular, with 22% of people buying on the platform. TikTok is also popular for social shopping, with 12% of people buying there.

Additionally, while 50% of Gen Z don’t shop on social networking sites, they may browse social apps. Data from SimplicityDX shows that while 18% of Gen Z prefer to buy directly on social media, 73.80% prefer to buy on a brand’s website.

Many Gen Zers still don’t shop on social media in general, but they browse on Instagram and TikTok, so brands are keeping a close eye on those platforms to attract customers.

Generation Z holiday purchase motivations

According to a study by SimplicityDX, about 28% of Gen Z consider discounts and promo codes as key purchase triggers, compared to 26% who are driven by the shopping experience and 15% who focus on social media recommendations.

Compared to older Americans, Generation Z is less pessimistic about the economy. According to YouGov, 41% of 18- to 29-year-olds say the economy is getting worse, a smaller share than any other age group. That said, 18% say they are unsure what is happening to the economy, more than any other age group.

While Gen Z is concerned about data privacy, these concerns don’t really impact their e-commerce shopping behavior. According to eMarketer’s “Social Commerce and the Path to Purchase” report, a lack of interest in a product is more likely to prevent a purchase than privacy concerns.

Overall, while Gen Z is less pessimistic about the economy, they are not very confident either, and discount codes and coupons still have great appeal to this group.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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