Breaking news. The generation that killed cereal, diamonds, and department stores has some thoughts about shopping.
These thoughts involve robots, financial anxiety, and zero tolerance for bad marketing.
So this year’s Data Story on millennials might bring some twists and turns in your strategy. Let’s buckle up.
🎮What changed? If you’re wondering how the stats looked for millennials last year, check out the story we did at the time.
Millennials are worried about their financial future
Millennials are swapping their avocado toast obsession for a new main course: financial anxiety.
With the cost of living soaring, this generation is feeling the squeeze more than ever:
Millennials don’t want more because they struggle to afford “the now”.
A staggering 52% of millennials say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, and their number one concern is the cost of living (42%).
This financial pressure overshadows other significant worries like crime, the environment, and even their own mental health.
This financial stress changes some of the millennials’ fundamental shopping laws. The “can I afford this” culture is replacing “treat yourself culture.” They are now on the hunt for value.
What we think: For millennials, the life of financial instability is the new normal. So luxury and impulse buys might be less prominent as they prioritize value and necessity.
What can you do: Rethink how you connect with millennials.
Focus your message on value, durability, and cost-effectiveness. Offering flexible payment options and plans that provide real, tangible savings might work.
Millennials, along with Gen Z, are becoming AI-first
Ah, the quaint times when we had to shift through pages of search results…
According to new data, millennials alongside Gen Z are leading the charge in adopting AI search summaries:
This fundamentally changes how information is found. And consumed.
59% of Gen Z and 56% of millennials are already using AI summaries for most of their online searches.
Compared to boomers (17%) and Gen Z (32%), you can see that the trend is powered by the young.
Is this the change in SEO as we know it? The days of fighting for the top spot on a search results page are being replaced by the battle to be in the AI summary.
If your content isn’t easily digestible for AI, you might as well be invisible to a huge chunk of the population.
Good news: if you have already done your SEO “by-the-book,” there’s a chance you’ll benefit from “AIO” as well.
That’s according to numerous experts and reports, such as this one from Ahrefs’ Ryan Law.
How to adapt: Optimize your content for AI. Use clear, concise language, answer questions directly (think “who, what, where, why”).
Plus, use structured data to make it easy for AI bots to understand and feature your information. That’s how you prevent yourself from becoming a digital fossil.
…they are increasingly using AI for shopping, too
First, AI came for our search bars, and now it’s sitting in our shopping carts.
Gen Z and millennials are increasingly turning to AI assistants like ChatGPT to guide their purchasing decisions.
The numbers speak for themselves:
Nearly half of all millennials (48%) and an even larger majority of Gen Z (57%) are using AI assistants when shopping online, while older generations are slower on the uptake.
This embrace shows that younger generations want a guide for their online shopping. They’re asking AI to compare products, find deals, and get recommendations.
The Crew’s opinion: AI is becoming the ultimate e-commerce middleman.
Shoppers want quick and personalized advice and brands that can feed the right information to these AI assistants will win the sale.
Actionable tip: Ensure your product information is clear, comprehensive, and easily accessible for AI crawlers.
Think about creating buying guides or detailed FAQs that an AI assistant can use to recommend your products confidently.
⁉️Did you know? ChatGPT actually published a guide that can help you make your products discoverable on the platform.
But what are they shopping for?
What’s actually in a millennial’s online shopping cart?
While stereotypes might suggest it’s full of niche gadgets and artisanal coffee, the data shows their spending habits are a blend of self-expression and everyday practicalities:
Clothing is the top category at 44%, followed closely by shoes at 35%. So personal style remains a key area of spending for this generation.
Right behind apparel are daily essentials, with food & beverages (29%) and cosmetics & body care (26%) showing strong online purchasing activity.
Further down the list categories like pet products (22%) and consumer electronics (19%) hold their own, while bigger-ticket items like furniture (14%) and appliances (12%) are less frequent online purchases.
What does this mean: millennials might have a preference for buying everyday consumables and fashion online. But for larger, more considered purchases, they are saving for in-store experiences.
Actionable tip: Fashion and beauty brands should double down on their online experience.
For those in CPG or food, the message is clear: the digital grocery aisle is booming. Consider subscription models for recurring purchases like cosmetics or pet products.
What influences millennials shopping habits today?
What makes a millennial shopper click add to cart?
For millennials, and Zoomers too, it’s less about flashy ads and more about crystal-clear information.They’re digital natives who can smell a marketing gimmick from a mile away.
The data shows it:
Forget the fluff. The single most influential factor for young shoppers (59%) when choosing an online store is a complete and transparent product description.
This massively outweighs other perks like having unique items (23%) or a good loyalty program (18%).
While free delivery is a strong runner-up at 38%, the message is clear. Clarity converts.
Interestingly, brand trust lands at the bottom of the list with only 4%. This doesn’t mean trust is irrelevant, but rather that it’s earned through transparency instead built with a big name.
Young consumers build trust from the ground up on every single product page. They value raw information over a polished brand image.
If you’re not giving them the full story, they’ll just swipe over to someone who is.
Actionable tip: Overhaul your product pages. Be radically transparent about materials, sourcing, and pricing.
Use high-quality images and videos, and don’t be afraid to detail the not-so-perfect features. Honesty sells.
Are millennials influenced by influencers?
Influencers aren’t awareness-drivers anymore.
For younger consumers, they’ve become powerful direct sales channels. Especially for younger consumers who trust a recommendation from a creator more than a traditional ad.
Millennials fall into that category:
Creator-led commerce is booming.
A massive 66% of millennials and an even more impressive 73% of Gen Z have purchased products directly from content creators online.
This influence extends offline too, with 58% of millennials and 60% of Gen Z making in-store purchases based on creator content.
The creator is the new storefront: The path to conversion no longer starts on a brand’s website but on a social media feed. Where creators are both taste makers and trusted retailers
What can you do: Don’t just partner with creators for exposure. Empower them with affiliate links, promo codes, and creator storefronts to turn their influence directly into sales.
Treat them like a vital part of your sales team.
🤳🏻For a thorough, in-depth report on the state of influencer marketing, you can check out our premium Stacked Marketer Pro report.
Millennials are AI-savvy
For millennials, AI is a daily utility.
And according to data, they are outpacing the general population when it comes to AI adoption:
They are more likely to use AI for:
- Shopping recommendations (64% vs 48% all respondents)
- Completing work tasks (65% vs 46%)
- Creating social media content (63% vs 44%)
Even using AI “for fun” is far more common among this group. That’s quite telling.
What do we think: Millennials have outgrown AI’s experimentation role. For them, AI is an assistant.
They’ve found practical, everyday applications for it, making them the first generation to truly normalize AI in the workplace and at home.
Key takeaway: If your target audience includes millennials, having an AI-powered feature is a selling point.
🤖 Millennials love AI. But what about the rest? If you love charts, check out our Data Story on AI sentiment for a lot more.
…and are optimistic about AI technology
Some folks are still eyeing AI with a healthy dose of skepticism, but millennials are pretty much all-in.
They are comfortable with AI, familiar with its nuances, and actively want to shape its future.
As you see in the following chart, they are the true AI optimists:
The numbers are striking, especially for the 35-44 age bracket.
A whopping 90% are comfortable using generative AI at work, and 62% claim to have extensive familiarity with it. That’s significantly higher than other age groups.
They aren’t passive users, either. The majority (81%) want to participate in the design of new gen AI tools, showing a desire to be collaborators, not just consumers.
The Crew’s Opinion: millennials have moved past the fear phase.
They don’t see it as a threat. And their hands-on experience has made them more comfortable and optimistic. Now they’re ready to take the driver’s seat in AI’s evolution.
The millennial-shaped reality
What have we learned?
First, millennials’ shopping behavior is driven by two key forces: financial necessity and technological fluency.
They’ve normalized AI as an everyday utility while financial pressures have made them ruthlessly value-focused shoppers. For you, this can be both a challenge and an opportunity.
If you can demonstrate clear value, maintain transparency, and leverage AI experiences, you might thrive with this generation.
But keep in mind that the old playbook of flashy marketing and brand prestige won’t work that well…
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