Social media takes center stage for zillennials, including in how they shop. More than 4 in 10 zillennials are highly influenced by social media for a large portion of their purchases. Recommendations from trusted sources matter most.
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Consumers, especially younger ones, love social media. More than 9 in 10 zillennials check social media multiple times a day. In fact, two-thirds say it influenced many of their recent purchasing decisions.
PYMNTS Intelligence’s latest research identifies 4 in 10 members of this crossover generation — comprising younger millennial and older Generation Z consumers born between 1991 and 1999 — as highly impressionable shoppers. For this huge segment of zillennials, social media holds outsized sway over what they buy. Our study also reveals which sources of influence matter most.
These are just some of the findings detailed in “Generation Zillennial: How Social Media Drives Zillennials’ Purchases,” a PYMNTS Intelligence special report. This edition examines how social media influences zillennials’ purchasing decisions. It draws on insights from a survey of 2,728 U.S. consumers conducted from Sept. 3 to Sept. 30.
More than 9 in 10 zillennials engage with social media multiple times a day, making it prime real estate for marketing.
Across all age groups, social media has become a central part of life for most consumers. Ninety-one percent of zillennials check social media multiple times daily, just 1 percentage point behind Gen Z, the most avid users. Millennials trail slightly behind, at 90%. Even a majority of Generation X consumers and baby boomers and seniors also check social media multiple times per day. These findings highlight how important social media has become for reaching target audiences, and particularly younger age groups.
The most popular social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, command strong appeal for all age groups. YouTube leads among zillennials in terms of the percentage with an account, at 81%, followed closely by Facebook and Instagram. Since YouTube can be freely used without login, the fact that 4 in 5 of these younger consumers have accounts suggests deeper or more frequent engagement. Merchants should consider this in their social media marketing strategies.
How Social Media Influences Purchases
Social media influence personas
We asked each consumer about whether social media influenced 10 types of purchases they made over the last 12 months. We sorted them into four personas based on their answers.
Highly impressionable shoppers:
• 26% of consumers
• These consumers have social media and engage with it multiple times a day.
• They report having been Influenced for half or more of their purchases in 5 to 10 expense categories.
Selectively impressionable shoppers:
• 17% of consumers
• These consumers have social media and engage with it multiple times a day.
• They report having been Influenced for half or more of their purchases in 1 to 4 expense categories.
Unswayed shoppers:
• 36% of consumers
• These consumers have social media and engage with it multiple times a day.
• They report not having been influenced for half or more of their purchases in any expense category.
Social media avoiders:
• 21% of consumers
• These consumers say they have no social media accounts, or they have at least one but engage with it less than once a day.
Four in 10 zillennials are highly impressionable shoppers.
The study confirms just how central a role social media plays in driving zillennials purchases. Forty percent meet the criteria for highly impressionable shoppers in our framework. Another 26% of this generation are selectively impressionable shoppers, for whom social media still impacted many purchases.
Notably, more Gen Z say they are highly influenced by social media. Forty-nine percent are highly impressionable shoppers, and another 25% are selectively impressionable. Meanwhile, millennials are a bit less impacted than zillennials, with 38% meeting the criteria for highly impressionable and 22% for selectively impressionable. These findings confirm the rising importance of social media for merchants’ marketing strategies.
Zillennials Seek Trusted Insights
For highly impressionable zillennials, trusted recommendations carry far more weight than ads.
Social media platforms serve as channels for a wide range of sources of influence. For zillennials, insights from trusted sources have a strong impact. We find 72% of this generation say that social media recommendations from friends or family influenced a recent purchase. This climbs to 81% among highly impressionable zillennials.
Similarly, reviews or testimonials influenced 72% of zillennials overall and 80% of the highly impressionable group. Recommendations from influencers played a role in the purchasing decisions of 66% of this generation. Notably, this jumps to 81% for highly impressionable zillennials, highlighting that influencers have outsized sway with this key demographic.
The data offers two important points of comparison for merchants in evaluating their social media strategies. First, recommendations from friends or family, reviews and influencers have almost as much impact as promotions, discounts and special offers. Second, these key trusted sources have substantially greater influence than ads. The big picture here is that fostering positive buzz and word-of-mouth recommendations on social media can have at least as much impact as paid promotions and ads.
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“Generation Zillennial: How Social Media Drives Zillennials’ Purchases,” a PYMNTS Intelligence exclusive report, is based on a survey of 2,728 U.S. consumers conducted from Sept. 3 to Sept. 30. The edition examines the use of social media by zillennials and how this can inform marketing strategies. Population weights are utilized to ensure analysis remains representative of the U.S. adult population.
About
PYMNTS Intelligence is a leading global data and analytics platform that uses proprietary data and methods to provide actionable insights on what’s now and what’s next in payments, commerce and the digital economy. Its team of data scientists include leading economists, econometricians, survey experts, financial analysts and marketing scientists with deep experience in the application of data to the issues that define the future of the digital transformation of the global economy. This multi-lingual team has conducted original data collection and analysis in more than three dozen global markets for some of the world’s leading publicly traded and privately held firms.
The PYMNTS Intelligence team that produced this report:
Scott Murray: SVP and Head of Analytics
Yvonni Markaki, PhD: SVP, Head of Data Product
Daniel Gallucci: Senior Writer
Matthew Koslowski: Content Editor
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