Why Is Social Media Driving Gen Z’s Gift Discovery?

A number of recent surveys confirm that social media has become the go-to place for Gen Zers looking for holiday gifts.

The surveys include:

• Gen Zers were found to be more than twice (42%) as likely as the average (20%) to buy holiday gifts directly through social media, according to May 2024 research from Basis Technologies and GWI. That compares to millennials at 26%, Gen X at 15%, and baby boomers at 6%. Among overall respondents planning to buy gifts directly through social media, the most popular platform to do so was Instagram, cited by 57%, followed by Facebook (56%), TikTok (43%) and YouTube (38%).
• Newly released research from freelance services marketplace Fiverr International found that a third of Gen Zers in the U.S. plan to find gifts this upcoming holiday season via Facebook and Instagram ads, and nearly a quarter (24%) through influencer recommendations. Almost 54% of Gen Zers find gifts on TikTok.
• A recent survey commissioned by Forbes Advisor found that 40% of Gen Z individuals use TikTok to find information on “gift ideas” and “hair and makeup” compared to 28% and 25% searching for such topics on Google. Other topics Gen Zers searched for on TikTok more than Google included “wellbeing & fitness,” “recipe and meal ideas,” and “fashion brands.” Forbes Advisor said in the study, “This trend shows a shift toward video-based platforms for information discovery among younger audiences, suggesting businesses might consider adapting their digital strategies to align with these preferences.”
• The Shopify-Gallup Holiday Shopper Pulse 2023 survey found that 48% of young adults (18-29) expected to do at least “a little of” their holiday shopping on social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. That compares to the one-third of overall shoppers who said the same.

Speaking to CNBC late last year, Savannah Wei Shi, a marketing professor at Santa Clara University who studies consumer decision-making on digital platforms, said Gen Zers are gravitating toward social media platforms to guide their purchase decisions over search engines or official brand websites because they trust information from their peers. She said, “They moved from the wisdom of the crowd to the wisdom of their friends.”

Shi explained that those peers include influencers who are often more accessible than brands. “They can still communicate with an influencer on an equal footing,” she stated. “It’s not like you are talking to a brand where you send a message to an email address and they never reply to you. They do give the presence of a friend or trusted information source. It’s a lot more persuasive.”