Social Media Shopping Activity Is Becoming Common Across Generations
Key Takeaways
Social media shopping isn’t just a young person’s game: the behavior is common for all consumers, including 34% of baby boomers.
TikTok and Snapchat see the most differentiated usage among social media shoppers, and they generally prefer platforms that are shopping-friendly.
The brands with standout favorability among social media shoppers are tech- and media-centric, with particularly strong favorability for the Apple and Meta ecosystems.
For many consumers social media and e-commerce are inextricably linked, whether through in-app checkouts or influencer affiliate links. About half (51%) of U.S. adults say they’ve made a purchase through social media, up 12 percentage points from the beginning of 2022. For more than a third (35%) of those users, social media shopping is so well-integrated into their routines they say they purchase through social media at least weekly. These trend-oriented, tech savvy consumers have a very short timeline from inspiration to conversion, and are worth investing time in understanding for brands hoping to catch them during that window.
Shopping through social media is climbing across all generations
Gen Zers and millennials are the obvious age groups shopping through social media platforms, but brands would be remiss to neglect Gen Xers and baby boomers, who have also seen steady growth in their social media shopping activity. About two-thirds of Gen Zers (67%) and one-third (34%) of baby boomers say they shop through social media, up 14 and 10 points, respectively, since 2022.
Social media shopping activity is increasing across all generations
The demographic profile of social media shoppers also shows that there’s an even split between genders in social shopping activity. Social media shopping also overindexes among busy parents, who are also more likely to use social media to acquire secondhand items for their children.
Social media shoppers favor TikTok
Naturally, social media shoppers use social media platforms more often than the average consumer. In particular, they use TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram at higher rates than the general population does.
Social media platforms that facilitate shopping see outsized usage from this cohort: Instagram and Pinterest in particular are extremely friendly for brands’ and influencers’ affiliate links, while TikTok of course hosts its own e-commerce platform. Social media shoppers also show a higher propensity to follow influencers and brands (+11 percentage points each) than the general population.
Social shoppers show outsized usage of TikTok and Snapchat
In fact, social media shoppers spend time on these platforms specifically looking for shopping inspiration: 39% say they use social media to find products to purchase (versus 26% of the general population), and 47% say they use it to find inspiration, like for places to visit or things to buy, and 26% use it for product research. For these users, the entirety of their purchase journey can be contained within a social platform.
Tech and entertainment brands stand out for social media shoppers
The brands that stand out from the pack for social media shoppers, or those with the largest favorability gap between social media shoppers and the general population, favor tech and social media companies. TikTok tops the list, and Apple brands like Vision Pro and Intelligence are highly ranked. Meta’s Facebook Marketplace, AI and Instagram and Reels also all made the top ten.
Social Shoppers’ Top 20 Standout Brands
The top twenty standout brands list also includes food and beverage brands, such as Bud Light Seltzer, Amazon Grocery, Grubhub and Panda Express. These brands don’t necessarily support social media shopping, but do show up in advertisements and user-generated content. The full range of categories on this list from AI to Barbie shows that it’s really anyone’s game, and grabbing the attention of this lucrative segment is just a viral video away.
