Gen Z Product Discovery Often Starts with Social Platforms, Especially TikTok
Social media was the top driver of product discovery for Gen Z across beauty, apparel, and holiday gifts in 2024 and it was second only to search engines for discovering home services providers.
Where do you recall seeing or hearing about a new product or service provider that you later went on to purchase/use in the past year? Select all that apply. (Top six overall responses among Gen Z.)
Among Baby Boomers, search engines were also the top driver of home services discovery, but traditional television topped the lists for holiday gifts and beauty products, and in-store displays were most likely to drive apparel discovery.
The specific social platforms Gen Z turns to for product discovery also differ considerably from older generations, with Gen Z continuing to show a strong affinity for TikTok even as a potential ban of the platform looms in the US.
On which social media platform do you do the following? (Share of respondents who selected TikTok)
Gen Z was seven times as likely as baby boomers to say that they look to TikTok for inspiration during their holiday gift shopping and 16 times as likely to say that they most often discover new apparel products using social media on TikTok.
If TikTok were banned and you could no longer use it, on which social media platform do you think you would most often discover new beauty products? (Gen Z respondents)
If a ban on TikTok were to be instituted, other platforms that have implemented short-form video features would benefit the most. Instagram would draw in the largest share of Gen Z, with 47% of beauty shoppers saying it would be their new preferred social platform for product discovery. This was followed by YouTube at 21% and Facebook at 12%.