A young woman with a smartphone walks past a billboard advertisement for YouTube. Sean Gallup via Getty Images
By Tatiana Walk-Morris
Source: www.retaildive.com, March 2023

Dive Brief:

  • Signaling the relevance of social media influencers, more than half (56%) of Gen Alpha parents said their children watch shopping content such as hauls or unboxing videos, according to a Morning Consult report shared with Retail Dive
  • The report found that a child’s influence on household purchases starts around the age of five and is consistent across income groups.
  • For children aged five to nine, 85% of their parents reported that their children had asked for products seen in stores. The report also noted that 79% of children ages five to seven and 76% aged eight to nine asked for products they saw on TV.

Dive Insight:

Though seeing products in stores and on TV appears to play a significant role in product discovery for Gen Alpha, they’re also discovering products online. According to Morning Consult’s report, 72% of parents with kids aged five to seven years old and 75% of parents with kids aged eight or nine years old said their kids had requested products they saw online.

Morning Consult’s report noted that 68% of Gen Alpha uses YouTube, but Fortnite, Roblox, and Discord are other popular gathering spaces for the cohort. It builds upon other research indicating Gen Alpha consumers are engaging in online product discovery. A Wunderman Thompson Commerce report from 2019 found that 55% of kids aged six to 16 want to purchase items displayed by their favorite Instagram and YouTube personalities.

“Even though they’re digitally savvy, Gen Alpha’s current primary influence on shopping preferences comes from stores; parents know that one of the best ways to avoid impulse buys is to leave the kids at home, not keep them off digital devices,” Morning Consult wrote. “More digital influence will creep into Alphas’ lives as they age, but physical stores still have a real role to play.”

Given that Roblox has emerged as a go-to place for reaching younger consumers, retailers like Claire’s, Home Depot and Kid’s Foot Locker have flocked to the game to create virtual environments. To continue courting brands and retailers, Roblox debuted Immersive Ads, its in-game advertising format, during its Roblox Developers Conference last September as a way to foster deeper connections with its community of nearly 59 million daily active users.