How social media became America’s new shopping mall

What started as a way to scroll, laugh, and kill time is now one of America’s favorite shopping malls. A new Mintel study found that 56% of Americans view social media as their primary source for product research. Meanwhile, 31% of both millennials and Gen Z have bought something directly from social media.

But while younger consumers are clearly more engaged with Instagram shopping, there is considerable interest from US consumers across the board, generation no bar.

Haley Ferrini, US analyst of tech and media reports at Mintel, told Retail Brew that there are some key differences between the way each generation shops online.

Younger shoppers, for instance, are more comfortable purchasing directly through an ad on a social media platform. “They have in these spaces the appreciation for convenience, and it’s not just about practicality,” Ferrini said, adding that their peers are likely to further influence their product choices.

Older shoppers, on the other hand, continue to use social media as a research platform. It primarily functions as a source of “gathering information” and validating their choices before they decide to buy something, Ferrini said.

“Social media is still a super useful tool to reach older consumers, but the approach just has to be more about providing them with information rather than pushing a sale,” she said.

Although it might seem that Gen Z and millennials are arguably more easily influenced than boomers, there is no influencing anyone if brands don’t value authenticity.

While Mintel found that 70% of adult Gen Z and 74% of millennials surveyed admitted that social media is essentially an advertising platform to push them into purchasing things, two-thirds of social media users said they felt “misled when they realized content they’ve interacted with is actually an ad.”

“While it’s important for content to feel natural to the platform and be engaging, it’s still important to be transparent that it’s an ad,” Ferrini said, adding that influencers could help retailers “bridge the gap.”

“Younger consumers tend to see influencers, especially smaller ones, being more so in the trenches with them,” she said. “But if it doesn’t feel authentic and the values don’t align, then that whole relatability advantage of influencer marketing just goes out the window.”

It’s clear that social media is quickly becoming a key shopping platform in the US, but in order to maximize it, retailers will need to understand and adapt to the consumers’ needs quickly.

“Smart retailers are using social media platforms to bring people into their stores by connecting their online and offline strategies,” Ferrini said. “If [retailers] embrace social media strategy and keep the messaging consistent, I think social media will only help grow the retail side of things, and then the omnichannel approach is still going to be most effective.”