Younger shoppers are increasingly using social media apps for their holiday shopping the same way their parents and grandparents relied on the 3-pound “Sears Christmas Wish Book” generations before, a new survey finds.
Over two-thirds (68%) of Gen Z consumers (born between 1997 and 2012) plan to use non-traditional shopping channels for Black Friday and holiday shopping, with Instagram (47%) the most popular, according to a Brightpearl survey reported in Retail Dive. Other non-traditional shopping sites include Facebook (40%), Amazon Alexa (35%), Pinterest (32%), TikTok (29%), and livestream shopping (25%).
The survey also found 45% of millennials in their 30s plan to holiday shop on social media apps, which in the digital age combine entertainment with shopping the way traditional malls used to do.
Instagram, the top Gen Z choice, is a platform that has been adding social commerce features over the past couple of years. Last December, the social network introduced Shopping in Reels, a feature that lets sellers and creators tag products when they make reels on Instagram. The platform also rolled out Shop tab ads internationally in August to build out its e-commerce potential.
The most popular online payment methods for Gen Z shoppers are PayPal (58%), credit cards (51%), debit cards (47%), Amazon Pay (32%), Google Pay (29%) and Apple Pay (26%). However, many retailers don’t offer all these online payment methods, the survey found.
“It is inevitable that more and more shoppers will buy and spend online in a variety of ways — especially as we approach Christmas and Black Friday,” Brightpearl.com spokesman Nick Shaw told Retail Dive. “Unfortunately, many retailers will miss out because they aren’t set up to quickly add the new selling channels or payment methods that their customers now prefer.”
