Shopping habits by generation: What brands need to know

Let’s say you’re planning a creator campaign for a new sunscreen and you need to help digital shoppers discover it, trust it, and buy it. Simple enough, right? But the tricky part is that “digital shopper” can describe very different journeys.

Hannah, 25, sees a creator she follows rave about the sunscreen on TikTok. She checks the comments, taps a discount code, and buys it through TikTok Shop. Meanwhile her mom, Laura, 62, hears about the same product from a friend, looks it up on Amazon, reads a few reviews, and adds it to her next drugstore pickup.

Hannah and Laura are fictional, but what they reveal in different consumer behavior is real. In Later’s March 2026 survey of 1,079 consumers, 66% had purchased something they discovered on social media. That rose to 79% among Gen Z and 76% among Millennials. Yet discovery, trust, and checkout don’t follow one universal path across generations. 

If a creator brief is built for “the digital shopper,” it’s mistakenly assuming one message, format, and link can serve everyone. Before choosing the creative, marketers need to know which audience the campaign is meant to move, and what that specific audience needs next.

Discovery looks different across generations

Discovery is where an overgeneralized audience label can first lead a campaign astray. A creator may make a strong case for a product, but shoppers have to encounter that content in a place and format they actually use.

Our survey points to two related questions for a brief: where might this audience first come across the product, and what kind of content will hold its attention?

Millennials made up 35% of the survey sample, the largest group. Within the sample, Millennials also showed strong engagement with creator-led and social shopping. Gen Z is highly social-led, too, though the formats that catch their attention can look different. 

Millennials, for example, leaned toward short-form video and livestreams, while Gen Z over-indexed on long-form video and Stories.

Think of it like choosing between a quick recipe video and a full cooking class. Both can make someone want to try the dish, but they ask for different levels of attention.

Boomers’ path often starts somewhere else. They over-index on offline and Amazon-led discovery, and they’re more likely to respond to text and thread formats. A creator post may still reach them, but it may not be the first place they look when they’re considering a purchase.

You can see the difference in how creators build for their audiences. Paige Desorbo is a good example of how social shopping can feel native to younger audiences: her fashion content on Instagram often doubles as product discovery, with followers seeing what she’s wearing and then tapping through to shop the look.

Meanwhile, Beth Djalali’s Style at a Certain Age caters specifically to women 50+, with detailed blog posts and YouTube videos on topics like Amazon finds, seasonal style, and beauty products. The way each creator packages discovery reflects where their audience already likes to spend time and how much information they want before taking the next step.

That doesn’t mean every Millennial wants a livestream or every Boomer isn’t influenced by creator campaigns; far from it. Yet it should make you think twice about your discovery strategy and the role of your campaign. 

Takeaway: Before you choose a format, ask where this audience is likely to encounter the product in the first place.

Trust signals don’t carry the same weight

A familiar retailer, a verified review, an expert explanation, and a creator’s recommendation can all reduce uncertainty among shoppers. However, our survey found that their relative value changes by audience.

Boomers lean most on retailer reputation. For this group, the place selling the product may do a lot of the trust-building. A message like “available from a retailer you already know” could land more comfortably than a creator-led endorsement on its own.

Gen Z and Millennials, by comparison, are more responsive to creator and expert cues, and they’re more open to AI-assisted validation. Millennials also over-index on detailed, verified reviews. They may be happy to discover a product in a creator’s video, then check whether real customers have had a good experience before they buy.

Imagine a new skincare product as an example. One shopper might trust a dermatologist explaining the ingredients. Another might want to see a creator use it over several weeks, then scan reviews from people with similar skin. Someone else might feel most comfortable seeing it stocked by a retailer they already shop with.

Each of the paths requires different things to build trust. A verified badge or a creator testimonial won’t do the same job for every generation. The brief should spell out which signal matters most for the audience it’s trying to reach, and how the content will provide it.

Takeaway: Match the proof to the audience. A creator recommendation, customer review, expert explanation, and familiar retailer each answer a different question.

Creators move some shoppers closer to purchase

66% of shoppers from our study said they’d purchased something they discovered on social media. That’s a strong signal for creator marketing, but the average hides a big generational split.

The number rises to 79% for Gen Z and 76% for Millennials. For these groups, social content can be more than a source of inspiration. It can directly prompt a product search, a save, a click, or a purchase.

Boomers are much more likely to report taking no action after seeing creator content, and more likely to say creators have never driven a purchase for them. That doesn’t make creators irrelevant to older shoppers, but it does mean a creator’s post may need backup from other parts of the shopping experience, such as reviews, retailer information, clear product details, or an in-store opportunity to see the product.

Think of a creator post as a handoff. For some shoppers, it carries them almost all the way to checkout. For others, it starts the conversation, and another source needs to finish it.

That distinction should affect what you ask creators to make. If you want Gen Z or Millennial shoppers to act, a clear product demonstration, creator perspective, and easy path to purchase can work together. If Boomers are part of the audience, plan for the next step they may take after seeing the post.

Takeaway: “Drive purchase” can mean several things. Decide whether the creator should prompt a product search, earn a retailer click, support evaluation, or drive an in-platform purchase.

The checkout may happen somewhere else

One of the clearest gaps in the research appears at checkout. In our survey, Gen Z stood out for buying through TikTok Shop. Boomers, meanwhile, still heavily prefer traditional online retailers and in-store purchases.

But there’s another wrinkle for marketers: the place where someone is influenced isn’t always the place where they buy.

That’s especially common in CPG. Someone might see a creator rave about a new drugstore mascara, protein bar, or bag of chips on TikTok, then toss it into their cart the next time they’re at Target, Walmart, CVS, or the grocery store. The creator content did its job, even though there may never be a trackable click between the post and the purchase.

That makes the path harder to attribute, but it doesn’t make creator influence less valuable. For campaigns designed to drive offline or retailer sales, marketers may need to look beyond last-click conversion and measure signals like brand lift, purchase intent, search lift, retailer sales, or incremental lift alongside direct attribution.

Generational behavior still matters within that broader journey. If the campaign is meant to drive Gen Z purchases in TikTok Shop, the product should be easy to find and buy there. The content can point directly to the item, show how it works, and make the next step feel simple.

For shoppers who are more likely to buy through a retailer or in-store, the brief can support that handoff instead. Creators might mention where the product is stocked, show recognizable packaging, explain what aisle or category to look for, or simply make the product memorable enough that someone recognizes it later on a shelf.

Takeaway: Choose the checkout destination before you finalize the call to action. The link should lead to a place this audience is likely to use.

AI comfort is another generational dividing line

The survey also found a clear gap in how shoppers feel about AI. Gen Z and Millennials are more aware of, and more comfortable with, AI shopping tools. Younger generations are roughly 3x more likely than Boomers to trust AI as much as or more than human recommendations.

Boomers are more likely to say none of the listed content or tools influence their shopping, and more likely to prefer human recommendations over AI. In the survey, just 5% of Boomers said they trust AI recommendations more than human ones, compared with around 16% of Gen Z and Millennials.

This matters as AI features show up in more shopping experiences, from product recommendations to chat-based search. A brand may think it’s making discovery easier by adding an AI shopping assistant. For one audience, that could feel convenient. For another, it may add a step they’d rather skip.

Your creator content can help bridge that gap. A friendly, personal explanation, a product demonstration, or a straightforward answer to a common question can offer the kind of reassurance an AI tool may not provide to every shopper.

Takeaway: Treat AI as one possible part of the shopping journey. Consider whether your audience will welcome the assistance or look for a human recommendation.

What this means for your next creator brief

Before you write the creative direction, get specific about the generation you want to reach. “Digital shoppers” is too broad to guide decisions about format, trust, or checkout.

Try answering these questions first:

• Where is this audience likely to discover the product? Social video, Stories, Amazon, a retailer’s site, or a physical store?

• What kind of proof will help them feel confident? A creator’s experience, an expert explanation, verified reviews, or a familiar retailer?

• What should they do after seeing the content? Watch another video, search for the product, use a discount code, shop in TikTok Shop, visit a retailer, or find it in-store?

• Will AI help this audience, or would a human recommendation feel more reassuring?

Then make those choices visible in the brief. 

• For Gen Z: Pair a creator demonstration with a discount code and a direct TikTok Shop link when that’s the intended checkout destination.

• For Millennials: Use formats such as short-form video or livestreams to spark interest, and make detailed, verified reviews easy to find.

• For Boomers: Give clear product information, make retailer availability easy to understand, and consider how the content connects to familiar shopping options.

The point is to build around the person you’re trying to reach, not an average shopper who may not actually exist.

Start with the audience, then write the brief

Generational shopping trends give marketers a more useful way to think about audience segmentation. Discovery, trust, creator influence, checkout, and comfort with AI all shift across age groups. A campaign can still reach more than one generation, but each group may need a different path from “I’ve seen this” to “I’m ready to buy.”

So before your next creator brief, ask: Which generation is this campaign really built for? The answer can help you choose the right creators, formats, proof points, and shopping destination from the start.

Want support building generation-aware creator programs? Explore Later’s influencer marketing services.