蘑菇AV

Gen Z is the critical force in digital buyer growth. Nearly 90% of the 14.7 million new digital buyers in the US between 2024 and 2028 will come from Gen Z. The pace of Gen Z digital buyer growth will be fastest between 2024 and 2026, before tapering off significantly, making the near-term period a critical era for brands and retailers to capture Gen Z loyalty.

For each consumer who supports brands stepping away from DEI initiatives, four to five would reward companies that stand by them. 77% of consumers are willing to abandon brands that reverse support for diversity. 40% of Gen Z adults have stopped using or purchasing from brands who contradicted or reversed their DEI efforts鈥攃ritical as Gen Z represents the primary source of digital buyer growth.

Key stat: Ads for products on sale are the most effective form of retail media advertising, with 51% of US digital shoppers saying they pay attention to them and 44% of digital shoppers saying they purchase from them, per Integral Ad Science.

This year, we expect the company鈥檚 digital advertising business to grow by 40.4%, driven by an influx of new digital buyers and more robust ad offerings. With advances including display, video, and off-site formats, Mercado Libre will capture more than half of all retail media ad spending in Latin America, expanding its advertising business across the entire marketing funnel.

蘑菇AV four in 10 US digital buyers will use BNPL this year, per our forecast. But it could cause friction among merchants who may not want to be automatically opted into accepting the payment method: BNPL can be more expensive for retailers to accept than cards or other payment types. Our take: In-store has become the new battleground for BNPL players.

There will be 42.4 million fashion online resale platform buyers in the US this year, nearly a fifth (18.8%) of total digital buyers, according to a December 2023 蘑菇AV forecast. We estimate that each of those buyers will spend an average of $345.92 on those platforms this year.

Our take: While brands might feel pressured to step away from DEI or face conservative legal pushback, staying committed will continue having benefits, especially for brands that want to reach younger audiences driving digital buyer growth. Gen Z attitudes indicate that ditching DEI is a business risk鈥攂ut that maintaining authentic commitments is an opportunity.

81% of US adult digital shoppers review return policies before making a first-time purchase, and 55% will abandon their cart if return policies aren鈥檛 convenient, per a Happy Returns report commissioned by PayPal.

Gen Zers are ready to spend. The majority will be adults in 2023, meaning increased spending power. And they rely heavily on digital when making purchases: Gen Z will surpass Gen X in the number of US digital buyers by 2025, per our forecast.

Close to a third of US digital buyers will purchase from a company located outside the country in 2024, for a total of 71.8 million cross-border ecommerce buyers, per our forecast.

Since the pandemic, online ordering and delivery have become table stakes for the grocery industry. Retailers like Albertsons have begun to develop tools and capabilities that provide added value for customers, focusing on creating a more convenient experience. 鈥淐onsumers think about food 226 times a day, that鈥檚 a lot of cognitive load,鈥� said Jill Pavlovich, senior vice president of digital shopping experiences at Albertsons Cos. 鈥淪o we want to take the experience from a transactional one to a helpful set of tools that can help people manage this.鈥� Albertsons leveraged customer data to identify areas for improvement across its website and mobile app.

While social commerce is on the rise in the US, livestream commerce has yet to take off. In addition, advances in technology (like ChatGPT) may help jumpstart voice commerce adoption. Here鈥檚 what marketers need to know to take advantage of the increase in physical and digital shopping channels.

This survey, provided by Bizrate Insights on behalf of 蘑菇AV, provides a monthly consumer pulse of digital shopping behavior and intent. Sources. Bank of America. Bizrate Insights. Saks Fifth Avenue.

Almost 4 in 10 US digital buyers will use it at checkout this year, and the figure will jump to nearly half among Gen Z and millennial digital buyers. And many consumers are leaning on BNPL as a credit card alternative. High interest rates, tightened lending standards, and a lower level of savings have pushed them to look for alternative financing options:.

Amazon is expanding same-day delivery for fresh groceries to over 1,000 US cities, with plans to reach 2,300 by late 2025. The rollout integrates perishables into its core app for single-cart checkout alongside other goods, offering Prime members free delivery on orders over $25. Early pilots saw strong adoption, especially from first-time grocery buyers who shopped more frequently after trying fresh food. The move pressures rivals like Walmart, Instacart, and Kroger in a slowing but sizable $271 billion online grocery market. If Amazon can convert trial users into loyal customers, it could reshape expectations for grocery delivery speed and convenience.

Almost 39% of UK digital buyers are making purchases via social media. There will be 19.0 million social buyers in the UK in 2024, per our latest forecast, up from 11.8 million in 2020. By 2028, there will be 21.5 million UK social buyers, which is an 82.2% increase over a seven-year period. Gen Zers and young millennials are driving growth in social shopping.

Shoppers leveraging AI assistants for discovery, research, and consideration can bypass traditional methods of digital shopping entirely. This means they may skip direct traffic to a retailer鈥檚 website, search engines, retailer-specific search bars, or even left-hand navigation for filtering鈥攁 shift with serious implications for ecommerce overall.

Consequently, overall digital buyer growth will remain below 2.0% each year through 2028. Click here to view our full forecast for US digital shoppers and buyers. Growth in spending per digital buyer will remain slower than overall ecommerce growth.

Digital buyer growth is also coming from mobile-first Gen Zers. By 2028, there will be 8.5 million digital shoppers ages 14 to 24, up from 7.9 million in 2024. Digital buyer penetration is already high among buyers ages 18 to 24, at 97.2%, and will increase slightly to 97.5% by 2028.

The platform maintains strong penetration with Gen Z, a key source of digital buyer growth. While platforms like Instagram also have millions of Gen Z users, Gen Z represents over 50% of Snapchat鈥檚 user base鈥攚hich isn鈥檛 the case for Meta platforms. Highlighting Snapchat鈥檚 ability to provide authentic social connection is critical in a time where many platforms are evolving toward broadcast models.