What Do Gen Z And Alpha Want From Brands?

Generation Z and Generation Alpha’s relationship with technology is, naturally, yielding different shopping habits from older audiences as the younger generations grow into consumers.

In a session at the Internet Retailer Conference & Expo in Chicago last week, Kit Garton, vice president of product at Chubbies, David Morin, vice president of customer strategy at Narvar and Tanya Brinich, senior director of client success at ThredUp, discussed with Julia Berk, head of consumer insights, North America, at Snapchat, the emerging trends they have observed with Gen Zers/Alpha-ers, and gave recommendations about how brands can win the business of these cohorts.

Ms. Garton characterized Gen Z as a generation raised with access to everything, not just online but mobile in particular, leading to an expectation of immediacy, including from retail interactions and in areas like shipping.

“As a brand, it’s really important to make sure that we are optimizing our online and physical experience to meet that instant gratification, that instant dopamine hit as we’re working with Gen Z,” Ms. Garton said.

The centrality of the smartphone to that generation’s experience has led to text messages becoming a more effective customer service channel than other online contact methods.

“Most younger generations don’t like email,” Mr. Morin said. “They prefer mobile first.”

Mr. Morin said brands should make sure to have an SMS strategy as part of their transactional program.

Chubbies stopped publishing its customer service phone number and, with 50 percent of customer service interactions handled through text and most of the rest through email, has seen its agents’ satisfaction scores improve.

In terms of transactions, Chubbies finds that while 80 percent of their online traffic is mobile, far fewer convert via mobile, which for Ms. Garton illustrates the value of implementing digital wallets and mobile payments to ease transactional friction for younger customers.

This tracked with research from Snapchat, presented by Ms. Birk, which anticipated Gen Alphas never using physical wallets.

Ms. Garton also recommended hiring Gen Z staff and empowering them to make decisions on things like product design and copy, even if a given idea perplexes an older audience.

“I might not understand it, but our customer base sure does,” Ms. Garton said.