• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer, September 24, 2025

Younger shoppers are driving growth at off-price chains.

Coresight’s "Who Shops Where" study says the game has changed. Younger shoppers aren’t bargain-hunting so much as rerouting their spend to places that deliver price, speed and novelty — think Temu and TikTok — and they’re swapping old shopping habits faster than before. That shift is boosting off-price apparel and nontraditional food outlets.

“This isn’t just a short-term reaction,” says Aditya Kaushik, an analyst and co-author of the study. “Consumers have internalized higher prices.” The survey, based on about 7,000 respondents, shows that even as inflation cools, a permanently higher price baseline has made shoppers more willing to abandon old habits and try new channels, accelerating how quickly trends go mainstream.

Beauty offers a compact example. TikTok, Instagram and YouTube now pull significant shopping audiences, especially among younger buyers. Instagram, in particular, skews more affluent. “Penetration rates for social platforms in beauty are increasing,” Kaushik tells Retail Insider. Because beauty purchases are small-ticket and high-frequency, platforms that blend discovery with instant checkout convert faster. That playbook is spilling into apparel and convenience.

Price is the other tectonic shift. The report finds that value entrants such as Temu and Shein are not just penetrating lower-income cohorts. Both Temu and Walmart have seen year-over-year increases in shopper penetration among higher-income households. Shein has shifted noticeably toward households with incomes of six figures. In short, novelty plus low price now attracts a broader income mix.

The store evidence is visible. Off-price chains like TJX, which owns TJ Maxx and Marshalls, benefit from quick turnover and a “treasure-hunt” experience that younger shoppers love. Kohl’s, which strives to attract that same young fashion shopper, struggles to replicate that momentum, skewing to an older audience.

Grocery is bending too. Coresight finds higher-income shoppers are increasingly turning to Walmart and Amazon for food, driven by assortment, delivery and convenience rather than simple loyalty.

Demographic nuance matters. The report shows that Hispanic shoppers split their time among mass and digital channels, Black shoppers skew toward dollar and discount formats, and white shoppers remain concentrated in traditional supermarkets. That fractured landscape means national, one-size marketing won’t cut it.

For retailers, the playbook is surgical. Viral moments still matter, but they’re not a substitute for the operational discipline that turns novelty into repeat business. The winners will be the retailers that make price, speed and demographic fit everyday priorities, not occasional bets.