What influences Gen Z to buy on social media?

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Product discovery is the top reason Gen Zers in the US buy through social media, with 45% saying they did so because they found items they liked. A comparatively low 22% cited influencers and creators, while just 16% were swayed by the company or brand name.

Beyond the chart: Gen Zers often find products via search, rather than relying on influencers or brands to make recommendations.

Half of Gen Z social media users in the US have made a purchase on these platforms. Instagram is the top destination, capturing 22% of them, followed by Facebook at 20%, YouTube at 19%, and TikTok at 12%.

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Methodology: Data is from the September 2022 Insider Intelligence "US Digital Trust Survey 2022." Insider Intelligence surveyed 2,225 social media users in the US between May 20 and June 9, 2022, to gauge how perceptions of digital trustworthiness differ between nine of the largest social platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. The respondents were selected to align with the US population on the criteria of age (among ages 18–76), gender, household income, and race. The survey was fielded by a third-party sample provider. Data has a margin of error of ±2.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence interval.