• by Colin Kirkland , November 3, 2022

After surveying 1,000 U.S. online shoppers -- half of whom were under 25 -- social commerce optimization platform SimplicityDX believes social media is now a mainstream shopping destination for Gen Z consumers. 

SimplicityDX’s new report highlights Gen Z’s use of social media as well as their shopping expectations for this upcoming holiday season, revealing that 80% plan to use social to find gifts and 41% plan to buy primarily on social media platforms.

Ninety-three percent of respondents use social media as part of their buying process, while 51% say it is a promising place to learn about new products, and 22% said social is a “great place” to buy new products.  

Seventy-four percent prefer to pay for their products on brand websites rather than buying directly on social platforms, with 60% of overall shopping activity being covered by two platforms: Instagram and TikTok.

“This reinforces the pattern of using social for product discovery, potentially with influencers, but buying directly on the brand site,” says SimplicityDX. 

“The majority of the next generation of consumers start their shopping at the edge and finish by checking out on the brand site,” says Charles Nicholls, co-founder and chief strategy officer at SimplicityDX. “Their preference for using social media for shopping should be a wake-up call to all brands targeting Gen Z -- and an early warning that the way consumers buy is changing.”

The report shows that the two most important factors triggering a potential holiday purchase for Gen-Z is the availability of promotions paired with an excellent customer experience. 

Almost one-third of Gen Z shoppers consider landing a great bargain with a discount code or a promotional offer to be the most important factor, while 26% consider customer experience to be most crucial. This number is notable, as it’s almost two times the percentage for other age groups.

Gen-Z’s strong preference to buy on the brand site is driven by a general mistrust of social media platforms due to the prevalence of scams, fake news, personal data breaches and inauthentic influencer endorsements.