The future of retail hinges on capturing the market for Gen Z, a demographic born between the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2010s that is expected to command up to USD$9-trillion in global spending power by 2034 — more than any other generation, shows the report. 

Social media shopping — a fragmented landscape made up of dozens of platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube — is a key battleground. Retailers need a unified commerce platform that combines AI capabilities, a centralised data foundation and seamless application interoperability to manage these increasingly complex shopping journeys, according to the report. 

The report shows that 53% of all shoppers now discover products through social platforms, up from 46% in 2023. Gen Z is leading the charge, with 76% using social media to find products. While YouTube dominates overall, TikTok is a Gen Z hotspot, attracting 40% of younger shoppers compared to just 4% of Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964.

"Social commerce is the latest channel for digital spending that is fragmenting across a constellation of marketplaces, retailer websites, brand sites and delivery apps, rather than consolidating into a single channel," says Linda Saunders, Country Leader and Senior Director Solutions Engineering, Africa. "Brands that fully embrace its potential will be in prime position to capture their share of the growing Gen Z market."

The AI Effect

Salesforce concludes that the report indicates that Gen Z is also adopting AI to find and evaluate products at a much higher rate. More than half (54%) of Gen Zers have used generative AI to discover and evaluate a product versus 39% for the total population. Gen Z shoppers are also 10x more likely than baby boomers to frequently use AI to discover new products and 2.7x as likely to want product recommendations from AI agents (63% vs 23%). 

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*Image courtesy of contributor