The Gen Z Buyer's Journey

You probably have Gen Z on your radar as a growing or key demographic for your business, but you might not know the specifics around their research and buying process. Here’s what we’ve discovered about the Gen Z buyer’s journey. 

“Generation Z members, in most cases, like to research a large amount of information about the products they want to buy and expect technology to help them greatly in the buying process.”  - Alic, Marta. (2020). Generation Z buyer’s journey.

Transparency in tandem with high quality will win you die-hard fans. 

The more data points Gen Z shoppers have, the better. This goes double for industries or products that have customer bases that care a lot about technical details, ingredients, or workmanship. 

Word of mouth recommendations and customer reviews are still the strongest endorsement of your products—aim to provide strong customer service and other support systems for customers to encourage positive feedback that other shoppers will see prominently when looking to buy from you. 

Publicize your missions, social causes, and ethical considerations: Gen Z weigh these heavily as an initial decision factor. 

If you already have a strong mission and back it up with actions, publicize them! Prominent placement of the work you’re doing on your website, packaging, and socials will be a boon to your engagement with Gen Z. 

If you don’t have any particularly notable achievements when it comes to social or ethical standards, start getting certifications and figuring out where you can improve within a reasonable timeframe. While you’re at it, measure the impact on your KPIs—see what your customers care about, run surveys, gather feedback, and iterate on it. There’s no need to chase every cause under the sun, and some accolades are worth more than others. Discuss internally about whether a broad business certification, such as a BBB accreditation, would make sense, or something more industry specific that shoppers will care more about in your verticals.

Influencer marketing for Gen Z has shifted—make sure you’re vetting your ambassadors thoroughly to create your desired brand image.  

Gone are the days of picking random influencers with a large audience and throwing money at them indiscriminately to promote your brand. Do your due diligence on potential brand ambassadors: read community comments, parse their demographic and engagement data, and examine which values a given influencer may (or may not) be prioritizing. 

In some cases, a poor fit with an influencer can even negatively impact your brand image, so be selective with who you’re choosing to represent your brand online. 

Respect the intelligence and research capacity of Gen Z customers. 

Underpinning all of these strategies is a fundamental respect for Gen Z consumers—and we don’t just mean their buying power. Trust that Gen Z shoppers will gravitate towards products, retailers, and brands that fall within their parameters of an ethical, sustainable business—and that they have the knowhow to figure that out for themselves. Attempts to obfuscate or mislead consumers is a losing proposition: that energy is better invested in building closer relationships with consumers, developing the trust needed to encourage repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations.