Gen Z Isn’t Shopping for Hype This Black Friday. They’re Shopping to Stay Sane

Every generation has a signature shopping behaviour. Boomers bought appliances. Millennials bought sneakers. Gen Z is buying stability and our Gen Z Forecast shows exactly why.

Drawing on months of campus fieldwork, weekly digital behaviour tracking and over 400 qualitative touchpoints from our youth panels, the picture is clear: South Africa’s 18–25-year-olds are redirecting their Black Friday spend toward wellness, functionality and micro-rituals rather than traditional status items.

This Black Friday, South Africa’s 18 to 25 year olds will direct more spend toward skincare, supplements, gym memberships, functional beverages, self-care tech, affordable fashion basics, gaming credits and daily wellness rituals than toward traditional status items like sneakers or high-end phones. At first it looks like a quirky Gen Z shift. In reality it is a sign of strain.

Skincare is part of it, but the pattern runs across categories. They are buying moisturiser, magnesium gummies, energy drinks, yoga mats, inexpensive earbuds, fashion basics, journaling kits, and therapy apps. These are not purchases designed to flex. They are purchases designed to cope. As Nia, a 22 year old student, puts it, “I spend more than I should on my monthly rituals but it’s not about beauty it’s about self-care.”

Gen Z is the most anxious, financially stretched and digitally exposed generation in modern South Africa. Their days are shaped by financial stress , a punishing job market and constant social comparison. In a world this unpredictable, small routines become anchors. A skincare routine. A run. A comfort hoodie. A gaming session. A functional drink before an exam. These micro habits restore a sense of control.

The same logic shows up in their preferences. They choose value tech over prestige devices because reliability is worth more than status. They choose basics over heavy branding because comfort matters. They pick low and non-alcoholic beverages over late nights out because they are exhausted. They spend on gaming, streaming and podcasts because they need mental escape. “I buy things that make life feel manageable, not things to show off,” says Matthew, a 21 year old student.

What connects all of it is simple. They are buying things that make them feel better, not look richer.

Retailers will celebrate the rise in wellness-focused spending, but underneath it is a generation quietly communicating how overwhelmed they are. Skincare did not suddenly become cooler than sneakers. Feeling okay simply became more important than being impressive.

Black Friday will not reveal a generation obsessed with consumption. It will reveal a generation searching for stability.

If we want to understand Gen Z this year, we should stop asking what they are buying and start asking why they need it.