What Is Gen Z Shopping and Why Should You Care?

From a total of 14,500 teens surveyed female participants are the ones shopping the most, contributing to an overall increase in spending when compared to 2021. According to the survey, in 2022 the highest level of female wallet share since 2012 was measured at 30% share. Looking at the things teenagers prefer to buy online, young women spend most of their money on clothing and footwear, whereas boys tend to spend it on food.

Not only shoppers amongst the adult generation love to shop on Amazon: more than half of the participants define this marketplace as their favourite e-commerce site. Next on the line is the famous Chinese fashion website SHEIN (8%), followed by Nike (6%) and Lululemon (4%). Although these last websites are considered fast-fashion brands, there is also a secondhand boom amongst youngsters: Participants claimed to spend 7% of global shopping time on pre-loved shopping, however, most of them prefer selling over buying (58% vs. 47%). Additionally, there is also a tendency to buy at discount channels, which can be understood as a reaction to the current financial crisis and high inflation.

As Nike is considered one of the top e-commerce platforms it is no surprise that this brand is the No. 1 amongst teens, for both footwear (60%) and clothing (31%). When it comes to the beauty sector, e.l.f. is the queen of cosmetics according to 16% of the participants and CeraVe is the top skincare brand with 42% share. Skincare was chosen as the highest priority of beauty shopping with an average spending of 103 dollars. Another brand that can be highlighted is Bath & Body Works which wins the title as the No.1 fragrance brand among female teens (38% share). When it comes to the preferred method by teens for customer service interaction phones are definitely the right answer and the use of text/ SMS is positively received. But, which phones does gen z use? Well, a clear majority of the participants (87%) affirms owning an iPhone and this preference seems to be here to stay.

Similar to the previous survey conducted in Spring 2022, a few months later TikTok remains the favorite social platform and gains a 38% share. In addition, Snapchat ranks second at 30%, while Instagram ranks third at 20% share. And video consumption does not stop there: it is estimated that teens spend more than one-third of their time on Netflix and 29% on YouTube.

After looking at what gen z shopping looks like in 2022, brands and retailers should consider advertising on social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, but also recur to Netflix for instance, as it is now offering companies the opportunity to advertise their products before and after programs. In addition, the focus on the marketplace giant Amazon should also be present in any marketers strategy, as it is the No.1 e-commerce platform for young shoppers. Lengow can help your business reach this teenage audience by optimizing your e-commerce strategy on marketplaces and creating powerful product ads on social marketing platforms, like TikTok. Furthermore, in order to own the so-desired Buy Box on Amazon you should also use price intelligence solutions that always guarantee you the best prices on the market.